In a long heart felt Facebook post, Inaamulhaq talks about the plight of people renting a flat in Bombay and how it’s worse if you’re a ‘Muslim’, a ‘Bachelor’ or from ‘Film Industy’ and worst if you’re from all these categories.
He also talks about what a menace the Cooperative Housing Societies are in Bombay.
It all started when Inaamulhaq acted in some popular Bollywood hits like Airlift and Jolly LLB 2. Work was coming to him more than ever and he couldn’t be more happy about it.
It was the time when he had to make one of the most important decisions in his life. Work wanted him in Bombay while family stayed away for long enough. This is when he decided to shift his family to Bombay.
Yes, Bombay. The city of dreams! The city which was once full of people from the film industry and is now full of brokers.
When Inaamulhaq started looking for renting a flat, it wasn’t easy for him at all. After answering a thousand questions ranging from what will be cooked, whether he’ll pet dogs, whether the shoes and dustbin will be kept outside to whether he’d roam around in half pants, he finally found a perfect place for him.
A house he thought would nurture his dreams. Much to his horror, he became a ‘Sunday Mocking Stock’ for one of the Cooperative Housing Societies.
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Recalling the horror and talking about the menace, the movie star wrote how for an entire month he travelled to Bombay every Sunday just to get keys for the place he wanted to rent. He had given his advance, assured he wasn’t a ‘bachelor’ and agreed to all the terms and conditions.
Only to see the horrified face of an 88 year old woman after waiting for hours in the broker’s office (he wasn’t allowed inside the meeting) on the 5th Sunday. The lady with shaky hands returned his money and told him how the Housing Society members didn’t allow her to rent the flat to him.
For some of you this might be a revelation, how an extra constitutional body can exert so much power. For others, it’s just another grim reality that they have faced in life.
Truth be told, this isn’t the first time we have come across the horror that these totally unconstitutional bodies are. Time and again, celebrities have talked about what difficulties they face while renting a flat.
Muslims are denied flats/houses without any legit reasons. ‘Bachelor’ is considered a derogatory term. If you decide to never get married and want your own place in Bombay, wave that dream a goodbye.
Even the landlords have no say in the process of these housing societies, wherein they find new people to mock every ‘Sunday’. And the tenants? They are considered as some second grade citizens. Their helplessness is taken advantage of by the members of these societies to mock them!
The silver lining to this story though is that Inaamulhaq didn’t keep mum about this incident, who is still living out of boxes at his current residence.
He has not only posted about the incident on social media but also registered a complaint of mental harassment against the Versova Housing Society in the Versova Police Station.
It’s about time that tenants are respected as humans and not some second grade citizens. They pay the rent to stay in your houses, they are legally entitled to live the way they want. It’s about time these bullies learn their lesson!
Like Inaamulhaq puts it for these Society heads and members,
नज़रें मिलाने का ‘स्कोप’ बचाकर रखियेगा।
शर्म से झुके हुए सर से बड़ी सज़ा आज तक नहीं बनी है।
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