Somebody once said, “One should love his neighbour.” The same person also preached that one must love his enemy. However, there are times in our lives when the neighbour turns out to be the enemy.
One fine day, my neighbour, who normally looks the other way whenever we cross each other’s path, was standing at my doorstep with a piece of paper in his hand.
“Good morning,” he said. The grim tone of his voice indicated that it was not a courtesy call, but a visit to set right a wrong done to him.
“When I walked through the passage between my building and your flat, I noticed it. You had fixed a window air conditioner in your bedroom,” he said.
I bristled with indignation.“Why? Is it a crime to fix an AC, purchased with my hard-earned money, to escape the rigours of the summer?” I asked.
“No. But your contraption has been installed in an area that belongs to me,” he replied.
I was flabbergasted. “Your area? It is on the window of my bedroom on the first floor…” He made a few clicking noises. Then, like a teacher dealing with a cloth-headed student, he said, “Precisely, but the steel grille guarding its outdoor unit is jutting into my air space, which is a flagrant violation.”
He then softened his voice. “To amicably settle the matter, I have got a bipartite agreement between the two of us. Here, two originals on stamp paper. As per clause (7) read with sub-clause (e), you will have to pay a token rent of `100 per annum, that will make your claim of ownership in future unsustainable in a court of law.”
The document he had produced was a sheer beauty in legalese, with bespoke terms like, “whereas”, “covenant”, “witnesseth” and so forth. He knew by looking at my face that I was not going to fly into a rage, but would sign, with humorous tolerance.
I signed all the three pages and asked, “Aren’t you going to get this notarised?”
“Of course, yes, after the two of us sign, duly witnessed. You will add `50, which is your portion of the notary’s charges. I will pay it up front and collect `150 in cash, when I give you the notarised copy,” said the legal bird and took off.
J S Raghavan
Email: jsraghavan@yahoo.com