Remember Eliza Dolittle singing
this song in “My Fair Lady”?
It is not just Eliza but many other girls who have sung this song over
the years . I sang this in the 1990s when I moved to Chennai and started
looking for a place to stay. Working as a beginner in the non profit sector,
what I earned just paid for that room and two square meals a day! I was too
proud to call it quits and go home you see!
After nearly two decades, it
appears as though the situation has changed. I realized this when I was trying to help two young
girls who have joined us as interns find an accommodation. The experience has
left me shaken to say the least…!
We began this hostel hunting
project last Friday!
Unlike me who was trying to do
this alone in the 90s , in this case both these girls had the entire office offering
advice. The options also seemed a bit too many .I compared it to the only two
options I had those days – the YWCA and Andhra Mahila Sabha!
We worked out a strategy and
decided that we would only look at places near the office so that they
would not have to spend time and money
travelling every day!
Now, our office is not located in
exactly what you would call a very posh area- it is a lower middle class, quasi
industrial area. So I had some misgivings about putting two girls straight out
of college from places outside Chennai in hostels within this area. However, there is no
harm in looking is it?
The first place we visited seemed okay. But we were not prepared for the
fact that the girls would have to share
a room with three others. So we moved to another location in the next street-
again, twin sharing accommodation was not available – four to a room seemed to
be the norm. We asked to see a room – what we saw made my head spin ! The room looked
like a poultry shed – the hostel management did little by way of cleaning it
and the residents ( my colleague C who was with us kept using the word
“inmates” and I kept correcting her but now I think she had used the right
word) added to the mess by throwing things around the room! I also wondered about the lack of a table or even a chair in those rooms. There were absolutely no other furniture except those beds!Were the residents supposed to just live out of their beds?
Our driver, who had by now become
an expert on hostel hunting told us that he had found another place across the
street. When we reached there we met with a very smart young woman with a
mobile phone who took down our specifications and started making calls and
letting us know which were the hostels that had twin sharing rooms. I was
almost certain she was some kind of a broker until she introduced herself as
the “proprietor” of these hostels. “ Oh, do you own all these properties?” I
asked her. “No ma’m they are all rented” she said riding with us to the various
locations and opening doors and letting us peek inside.
Twin sharing or threesomes or
foursomes – all the rooms were uniformly messy! I was increasingly beginning to
feel they needed someone like my mother to be in charge- she would scold all
the girls living there into cleaning those rooms!!
Today’s experience was even
worse. We moved to some upcoming residential areas around the office which can
certainly be called “posh”. The buildings were new but the way the “hostels”
were maintained were uniformly bad! Imagine this scene – a living room in one
of these flats filled with steel cots lined around the perimeter with godrej
bureaus dividing the space into two living areas. Each bedroom had so many cots
that I was not sure anymore about how many were actually expected to share that space. And when we
asked for the “warden” they pointed to someone who looked like the domestic help!!! I thought I had lost my power of communication because every time I said
“twin sharing” room they would take us to these cot filled rooms and tell us
there were two beds vacant!
Finally we did find them a decent
hostel – near the office but in a street that was really nice. Not twin sharing
but three to a room. By the end of the day we had become so desensitised to the
messy rooms that the bench mark was sufficiently lowered for this place to be
counted as “acceptable”!! However what surprised me when we finally made the decision was that no one asked for any letter from the organization or any other particulars in terms of relatives of guardians in the town. They were satisfied with the token advance we paid and promised to hold the the room until tomorrow!
But jokes apart – I am appalled
at the kind of accommodation that this city provides for working women!! Most
of these so called “hostels” are houses with portioned rooms and crammed in
cots – each of them charging anything between Rs 4000- Rs 6000 per head per
month with or without AC / washing machine.
And more than the kind of options
available what sickens me is the fact that these girls who are probably quite
decently educated and earn decently ( all these so called hostels are located in the back streets of the big IT companies) live
like chicken in these rooms! Their beds are never made and I think they never
fold their clothes!! And can you imagine
four girls/ women living like this?
“Oh hostel rooms are meant to be
like this” says a friend. I disagree! I lived in a hostel during my college
days and later – I am not exactly meticulous about cleanliness but I think our
rooms were far tidier than any that I
have seen during the last three days. My sister’s college hostel did not have
cupboards and they lived out of trunks which were pushed neatly under the bed
when not needed. The wardens ensured that we lived like humans.People whose
rooms were untidy were severely reprimanded!
“It is a class thing” says the
husband. I disagree. I have seen women keep a hut very clean while women who
own huge houses have floors so sticky with dirt and grease that one’s feet get
stuck on them. I refuse to take off my shoes when I enter such houses! Taking
off one’s shoes is to keep the floor clean but if the floor were to dirty my
feet then I would prefer to keep my shoes on!
It saddens me that our education
system has not taught simple values around cleanliness and hygiene. Neither
have the parents instilled it in them, it appears. It is probably education in
only certain types of colleges and schools that still holds on to these values.
And these colleges are possibly accessible only to people from a certain class
–so I guess in way it IS a class thing!
One of the interns tells me that
when she was studying in Delhi,
she stayed in a hostel with four girls to a room but it was not like this. I
believe her. I am sure Delhi does not have as many working girls of a certain variety as Chennai does! And the single working woman in Delhi is probably not someone who is working crazy hours to save for a dowry or repaying a loan taken by her parents to send her to a ( probably no good) private engineering college that cleaned out their entire life savings!
When providing accommodation to a
vast number of working girls becomes a business where the demand is greater
than supply and when the people who require that accommodation care very little
about how they live or where they live then such filthy places are bound to
flourish. I wonder how many of the
owners of those new houses we saw are aware of how their lovely flats are being
misused? I wonder if there are any government regulations around this? ( not
that they would be adhered to in our country)
As more and more girls come out
into the job market, these conditions are probably going to worsen. Poor Eliza would then be forced to sing “All I want
is a cot somewhere”! She would certainly have to forget about that "enormous chair" ... None of the rooms would have space for that!
And sorry my dear Eliza- it would not be "Lovely"!!!
( pictures from the Internet)
And sorry my dear Eliza- it would not be "Lovely"!!!
( pictures from the Internet)
As usual, you have created an awareness, Meera.
ReplyDelete4 in a room?...when it is not a school environment?....My issue is the messiness ...yes, i agree with you, a woman living in a hut can keep it very clean when compared to her counterpart in high-rise building.
Can a petition be written to the right agency..like ministry of housing? OR the sanitary / environmental ministry?
Hostel accommodation for girls is a problem at all cities.
ReplyDeleteThere are many other issues.Who is going to be in charge? What kind of residents are there?Are they all going to be working women?
Problems arise when few of them start creating troubles, like bringing visitors.
It is difficult to find a place where like minded people can stay together. For those who run the hostel,it is just money and nothing more.
M, it is the question of civic sense, be it in ones house, or public places. the other day I saw the picture in The Hindu, of the Presidency College Chennai with garbage strewn around.
ReplyDeleteIt is in the psyche, we, be it Mallus, Tamils, or another Indians, the matters of civic etiquette are always found wanting and education has not done much.
You have highlighted a genuine problem in ladies finding good accommodation in a safe and secure place.Atleast the big IT and BPO companies that employ women in large number should have hostels owned or leased for women employees.
ReplyDelete@ Simply mee, your idea of complaining to the authorities is a good one but I am not sure what should I complain about - I don't think our ancient zoning laws have factored working women's hostels in their planning
ReplyDelete@ Dr.Antony you are right- all your questions are relevant. I do not have the answers and I doubt anyone involved in the management of those places has either.
@ Anil civic etiquette is an alien word. I used to generally believe that we keep our houses clean but the streets dirty but these experiences in the hostels have confused me about that belief
@ KP I think the IT and BPOs do have accommodation but it is probably not sufficient. Besides, what happens to women who are not employed in that sector. Where do they live?
Meera,
ReplyDeleteReally sad state of affairs. It seems that all the owners of such hostel are interested is MONEY. What you say about habit of living neat & tidy is so true. We need to inculcate this in youngsters.
Take care
I can totally understand and agree with each word u have written here.. lived in Chennai for 4 years..hostel hunting was really a task..but thankfully found one in Alwar peth clean and nicely maintained..and later on moved to a paying guest accomodation in Adyar..one single aunty gave 1 of her bedroom on rent.. again that was a very nice experience..
ReplyDeleteHehehe...so, u did write one on the hostels:P I have to agree to most of it- the conditions how they are maintained, hygiene, cramped living areas, but it is indeed a money spinning business. Just imagine the money so-called owners earn out of these chicken coops:(
ReplyDelete