S Ananya* glanced at her watch anxiously. It was almost 1.30am and she was beginning to get worried. Her brow furrowed and her tone became impatient as she asked the cab driver to hurry. The car screeched to a halt in front of a large apartment complex where hardly any lights were on. A sleepy watchman greeted her with a grunt and muttered the usual lines - ‘Why are you so late?’ ‘Do your parents know that you are out so late every night?’ ‘I will tell the owner!’
After successfully evading the watchman, Ananya had to tackle the next hurdle before she got home. She tiptoed to the lift and said a silent prayer before opening the lift door. Her prayers bore no fruit because the dreaded announcement echoed through the four floors of the building – ‘Please close the door, daivasenju kadavai moodavum.’ She rolled her eyes and mentally prepared herself for a lecture the next day. Not from her parents, but from her neighbours.
Ananya had moved into a flat with a friend as a means to get away from the curfew and rules that came with being in a working women’s hostel. What she was not prepared for was the barrage of rules and regulations that come with being a single person, and a woman at that, renting a house in the city. Ananya is not alone. She represents a large number of youngsters working or studying in the city struggling to find a place in the big city to call their own.
“It is very tough for single, working women to find a house,” said P Jaya*, a media professional. “It took me and my roommate a month and a half to find a house. When looking for the right house we came across so many people who had lots of restrictions in terms of not having any boys over, no alcohol, no non-vegetarian food. Some even said they wanted our parents to come sign the rental agreement to feel assured that we would pay the rent, even though we were both over 25 years.”
Even if the owners are not dragons spitting fire at any given chance, most apartment societies have mystical, omnipresent creatures called ‘Neighbours’ who track developments in real time.
“Our neighbours keep complaining that we have a lot of visitors,” said Shobana Kumar*. “The reason being that they find out from the sound of the lift and the doorbell that there are people coming over. They think we lead very happening lives and party all the time when in reality the ‘visitors’ we have are only delivery people from Swiggy or Zomato. They find it hard to believe that we are regular people who come back home tired and just want to sleep.”
Kumar’s housing society apart from having nosy neighbours with an over-active imagination, also houses very efficient planners. What else explains the society calling all the single women who were casually termed a ‘menace’ and briefing them about how they were ‘allowed’ to bring guests only if they give prior notice of five days or at least two days.
“Who plans so far in advance?” Kumar asked matter-of-factly. “Most plans are impromptu and flexible. We tried explaining this to the society but they just told us to fill a police form when the guests come and provide details of their Aadhaar, phone number and a passport photo too. They even suggested that every girl provide a list of five people who will be permitted as guests into the society, but we got them to change that because who can just give five names?”
Police too are ‘informed’ by either the societies or neighbours to keep a watch on singles. There are allegedly three categories of people who are watched by the police – elderly people, single women and single men. While patrolling, the police supposedly ask about the whereabouts of these three categories to ensure they are not upto anything ‘shady.’
However, there are times where this community watch can escalate to ugly levels. One such instance occurred with Aishwarya Prasad*, an IT employee, who would return home only around 4 am after completing her shift. One day she was dropped home by a male colleague and the police intercepted them and took photographs of them in front of their house. The man was taken to the police station and allegedly had to pay `1,000 to get out.
“My neighbour had complained that I came home late everyday and that I was hugging and kissing men at the gate,” said Prasad. “How she managed to see that from her house is a mystery. She informed the police and they came after my colleague and me that night. The police warned us not to do anything outside the apartment. The house owner was very supportive and she spoke to the neighbours but I had to make my parents tell them that the boy with me was a friend and colleague and nothing more.”
It is not easy for single men either to get a house on rent, especially those who do not have ‘stable’ professions. “I am a photographer and I had many people who outright refused when they realised that my profession was related to art,” said Vikram K,* who came to Chennai from Erode. “To get the house I am living in, I was interviewed by the entire family. It was more like an interrogation where they asked me everything from my family background to whether I had a girlfriend!”
Apart from the more common conditions that many owners lay down like not having guests over, no alcohol or non-vegetarian food, there are some bizarre conditions that come up too. For instance, Vikram was told not to cook in the kitchen because ‘it would stain the walls.’ While he had no inclination to cook initially and has been ordering from outside ever since, he was contemplating getting a maid but that too seems risky because of the no-staining of walls clause. For Rekha Jagannathan* it came in the form of being questioned about whether she said her prayers every morning. When she said she did not, she was not given the house.
Bizarre rules
There are some bizarre conditions that owners come up with. For instance, Vikram was told not to cook in the kitchen because ‘it would stain the walls.’ For Rekha Jagannathan* it came in the form of being questioned about whether she said her prayers every morning. When she said she did not, she was not given the house.
*Names changed on request