Location, location, location!

Should you live in the city centre or move to the 'burbs? Both choices have their pros and cons

 

When I moved to Delhi from Calcutta a couple of decades ago, the most stressful thing I had to do was house-hunt. Landlords tended to regard single women with suspicion and journalists even more so. And it didn’t help that my rent allowance wasn’t exactly going to land me a three-bedroom flat. 

 

Unless, of course, I chose to move to Gurgaon. Here my budget would get me a beautiful flat in a condominium which had a gym, a swimming pool, tennis courts, and even a hair salon. I made the trek dutifully and was duly impressed by the apartment. But as I drove back to my office in Delhi, I knew that wild horses couldn’t drag me back to live in Gurgaon, no matter how great the facilities. I had to live in Delhi, a 20-minute ride away from all my usual haunts, even if all I could afford was a barsati flat, in which I froze to death every winter and baked to a crisp every summer.

 

So, that’s what I did. And despite all the hardships this entailed (climbing up three floors four times a day is no fun!) I have never enjoyed myself more than I did in my ever-so-humble first abode in Delhi. I have fond memories of freezing nights spent huddled around a sigri with my friends, while some kebabs sizzled away on the grill; of hosting wine and biryani evenings in my tiny drawing-cum-dining room, with the overflow of guests making themselves comfortable on my bed; of family lunches during which my minuscule kitchen would be jammed full of people trying to get their hands on the next paratha off the tawa. 

 

It was that small space that gave me the greatest joy in my life. And I knew that I wouldn’t have been half as happy in a sprawling apartment if my friends and family (not to mention, Lodi Gardens) was at least an hour’s drive away.

 

I guess it all comes down to priorities. There are some people who prioritize space over everything else and are willing to make sacrifices – like an endless commute five or six days a week – to ensure that they can enjoy it. And then, there are those like me who are willing – even happy! – to live in cramped accommodation just so that they can feel like they are close to the action – and their workplace. 

 

The world is divided between Townies and Burbies; and neither group can understand how the other lives with the choice they have made. Townies marvel at the endless hours Burbies spend stuck in traffic. Burbies don’t get how Townies cope with being restricted to just one bathroom. And so on.

 

But I guess at the end of the day, the joke’s on Townies like myself. Because, two decades on, in Delhi at least, the city has expanded so much that living in suburbia feels like being in the centre of town. So now friends of mine who bit the bullet and bought spacious homes in Gurgaon find themselves surrounded by the best that city life has to offer: trendy restaurants, luxury hotels, top-end malls, cultural hubs that host the best plays and musical performances, and swish clubs that offer everything from golf to tennis to gourmet meals.

 

In retrospect, was that barsati a mistake, after all?