Honest guide to renting in 'uncosmopolitan' Mumbai

Much has been written, said and sung about Mumbai. Some come here to go to college some for a job they have been offered at an MNC, some for their spouses or some just to live their dream.

Forget the song and the moving images and cut to reality. Mumbai is really about two brutal things: finding an affordable place, at a manageable distance to where you have to go

Still, how difficult could it be to find a few square feet of space for the easily placated student or rookie employee?

We dug some, asked around and found the unanimous answer.

The city may boast of a cosmopolitan nature but its rental geography is divided into brazenly uncosmopolitan blocks.

For instance areas of central Mumbai such as Matunga West, Lower Parel and Dadar are home to a large number of Maharashtrians, while Matunga East is home to Tamilians.

The long line of Vegetarian restaurants dotting Marine Drive is telling of the fact that Walkeshwar and Napean Sea road has been home to the affluent Gujurati and Jain merchants for generations.

If you scoff at vegetarian as a food option you may want to check Vile Parle, Walkeshwar etc off your list of options.

Bandra, Borivali and certain pockets around churches are dominated by Christains, and the only way you can even think of getting a reasonable accommodation at Bandra is by either being a Catholic, or convincing a nice-old Catholic lady to give out a room in her massive home as a PG.

A visit to Mohammed Ali road during the month of Ramadan will tell you emphatically, that this is an area characterized by Muslim dominance. Bandra East, certain areas such as Bhendi Bazaar in South Bombay, Kurla, Cotton Green and Sewri in the suburbs, and Mumbra are the other Muslim pockets of the city.

As per a survey conducted by World Gazetteer, 2008 in the Maps of India website Hindus constitute around 67.39% of the total population while the share of Muslims and Christians is around 18.56 % and 3.72 %, respectively. Apart from these religions, the population also includes Buddhist, Parsi, Sikh, Jain and Jew communities.

As per the ethnic division, Maharashtrians form a bulk of the population at 42 % while Gujaratis make up 19 %. The share of North Indians is around 24 % while South Indians constitute rest of the population.

Given this segregation, here is an honest guide to finding your space to rent:

• Study the geography of the city and try to pick an area which will keep your travel-to-work time at its minimal unless you enjoy being squished into someone else’s personal space and becoming one with the throbbing mass of human bodies every peak hour. For Vivek an employee of BMR and associates who arrived from Gujarat a complete newbie to Bombay and clueless about the geography of the city the roadblocks were many. He however settled for a PG in Grant Road as his food needs were also taken care of and the commute to his office in Fort proved to be not so strenuous.

• Less dependent you are on brokers the better as relying on them only hikes the expense and drama involved. ‘Flats without brokers’ a Facebook group seems to somewhat address this problem helping us by not having us rely on brokers to show us around.

• Abstain from wearing your religion on your sleeve or even better lie about it! Blasphemy? Oh I’m sure your God will forgive you for not screaming your religion from the rooftops for more material domestic gains.

Infact only yesterday Karan along with his three friends all of who are professionals went house hunting in Chembur. After zeroing in on a decent apartment and approaching the landlord the first question they were asked was regarding their religious background. They claimed they wanted only Hindus as Muslim and Christian boys create a ruckus which apparently was exclusive to that religious group.

Jacob George a student of NMIMS says, ‘The broker will always use my religion as a selling point to a Christian land lord and the fact that I’m not Muslim to a Hindu one. All that talk about cosmopolitan Mumbai seems a sham. And we three boys have to offer to pay a higher rent than the fairer sex to get the broker to muster his convincing skills to get the owner to rent out to bachelors.’

Murtaza Ali Sheikh, a broker says societies mainly in Napansea Road, Prabha Devi and Shivaji Park do not entertain Muslims or in certain cases and even more surprisingly Sardarjis. He says, ‘Most of the big guns of MNCs prefer to live in areas like Napansea Road due to the proximity to high end schools but CEO or college student – these societies couldn’t care less – being Muslim is crime enough to bar you from some societies in these areas.’

A hostel in Colaba which admits only Roman Catholic Christians was not always so, some of their former residents claim. Rachita Sengupta says, ’three years back one didn’t need to be a roman catholic to be admitted there. However the hitch lied elsewhere. We were dragged out of bed every Sunday morning and forced to attend the mass irrespective of religion.’ Little wonder then when they decided to have an only Roman Catholic policy a few years down the line!

• If you aren’t a delicate darling then a lodge might be a good option too. Or if you are willing to slum it out Slum Rehabilitation Accommodation (SRA) is a wallet friendly option. SRAs can be found off Carter Road in Bandra, Vile Parle East, Andheri West etc. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

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Another journalist currently resides in a Men’s lodge in Chembur to save himself the hassle of finding himself a place to rent. It’s way more financially feasible he ,and with Mumbai rents scaling unbelievable heights this could very well be a deal breaker or maker.

• For the easily homesick stick to areas dominated by your religion for it may prove to be a home away from home.

For Ditilekha from Assam living in Kalina currently, finding a place proved to be no mean task. Having lived in a hostel during her course at TCS she opted to rent an apartment, due to her odd working hours. Despite her office being in Parel she opted to stay at Kalina and brave the commute since Kalina happens to be home to a lot of fellow Assamese. Ditilekha says, ‘Knowing that your neighbors come from a similar ethnic background leaves less to worry about with regard to food habits and culture. And reasonable prices were a deal clincher.’

• Getting used to cramped quarters quickly will save a lot of heartache as Mumbai is a city where space is a luxury. Your bed maybe within pinky linking distance of your roomie.

As for college students the dearth of on-campus hostels does not help.

Surodeep an FY BMM student from St Xaviers College decided to opt for a PG. He says, ‘In the conventional sense a PG is a room let out to students in an apartment occupied by a family or a couple looking to make a few extra bucks. If lucky these PGs even may have a separate entrance. However in Bombay where foot space is a luxury PGs in south Bombay are mostly a room with 4-5 mattresses thrown in ranging from Rs 5000- Rs.10,000 per mattress depending on how swanky the neighborhood irrespective of the squalor surrounding your immediate vicinity.’

Brokers and landlords seeing these vulnerable novices in Bombay spot this as a lucrative business opportunity and ensure they get blood from stone. Aatish another student form St. Xaviers College says he was horrified at being shown a so called PG crammed with 8 mattresses in a chawl in Breachcandy a part of ‘South Bombay’ which boasts of housing some of the who’s who.

• Monsoon is NOT the best season in Mumbai despite the romantic pictures of Marine drive you might have seen. And if you’re house hunting it’s a mood dampener to say the least. Try and pick a non monsoon month to go house-hunting

• If you think getting a cook is heavy on your wallet think again. Is a few bucks worth abusing your stomach over? Though the variety of food options seem tempting at first your stomach will begin to gurgle and rumble in protest soon enough. Invest in a cook!

And so, with each day, more people enter Mumbai, with more songs, dreams and hopes. Even if the city of dreams lives on for outsiders it is being slowly eaten away on the inside.