Love Thy Neighbours?!?

• Do You Have This…?? This is their first question as soon as you open the door. So, being a good person that you are, you answer in an affirmative and share the item in question with a smile. These items range from sugar, curd, red chilli powder, green coriander and even the thermometer. You have no problem in giving them whatever they want, after all, they are just silly, small things. But you have issues, if they do not return back the ‘Tupperware’ container (despite repeated reminders), in which you had given the curd!! And after nearly a month, the thermometer has still not found it’s place in the drawer of your home… 

• The Param Bhakts : Have seen and met many religious people over the years, but no one matches the fervour and devotion in God as this family. This family does not believe in having a silent one-to-one conversation with the Almighty. Their connection with the God is complete only with chanting of mantras and bhajans and the artis ON TOP OF THEIR VOICES!! And this DAILY ritual starts at 6 am and continues till 9 am and then starts again in the evening from 7 to 8 pm. And during the festive days like the 9 days of Navratri or the Janmashtami or the Poornima or the Ekadashi or the Chauth…. the ‘celebrations’ are a whole day process!! No marks for guessing about our plight as they have a flat bang opposite ours.
• The Eternal Cribbers : If a guest’s car is parked even for a few minutes in their parking, you get a call to ‘remove’ it ASAP, even if their car is away and would be coming back only late in the evening. You keep the blanket out on the balcony railing and their balcony gets 10% less of sunlight because of the hanging blanket, they have to comment about it. The children while passing their door in the corridor, make noise, and their noise decibel can be heard two floors above and two floors down. Everything about you irritates them.
• The Home is Not Enough : Yeah for them the their 3-4 BHK is not enough. Shoe racks, scattered shoes, dustbins, big pile of old newspapers, bottles and containers, kid’s bicycle… are seen lying outside the door, in the corridors. While the potted plants, terracotta artefacts, wall hangings etc outside the door are so very welcoming and beautiful, but these the shoes etc… they sure are an eyesore! Our next door neighbours have not one but TWO shoe racks outside the main door!
• The compare.coms : “Uski sari meri sari se safed kaise?” is their mantra in life. So it’s always Landlord vis-a-vis Tenants, 32” LCD vs 40”Plasma TV, Canon vs Nikon, SX4 vs City, This School vs That School, Home Tutions vs Coaching Classes, Holidays in Europe vs holidays in small hill Indian stations… the list is endless. Such mind-sets still exist!!??
• The Enquiry Desk : No, you don’t go to them to ask anything but since they NEED to know all the answers, need to know all the things that are happening in your life, where you went, what you bought, who is that…so, they actually have all the info on you!! Once, a nosy parker even told me that our friend M had not visited us for 5 weeks!!
• The Invisibles : The exact opposites of The Enquiry Desk. You never see them around and never hear from them either and just in case, by chance you meet them in the lift and smile, they look the other way. Yeah, they just do that!!

Love them?! Hate them?! But you sure can’t ignore them!! Coz, they sure are around you, much more than the relatives and friends!! How have been your neighbours!!?? Love them??