Your Friendly Neighbourhood standing by you always

The neighbourhood is a great concept on which we have grown. The tagline “Your friendly neighbourhood” picked up by the Hollywood movie Spiderman series is very apt. The reason being that Spiderman is always willing to help people in the society. Neighbourhood helps in building a society that cares for everybody. In a real-life scenario, the meaning of neighbourhood stands for someone who is always there for you in moments of grief as well as happiness.

Neighbourhood was friendly in our school days

I remember during my school days when we used to come back and mom was not at home. Most of the time she was at neighbourhood aunt’s place discussing a whole range of issues. The topics of discussions were interesting from cooking to kids schooling to personal problems. And there was so much of bonhomie that the aunt would force mom to spend some more time with an extra cup of tea. On the other hand, my aunt will ask us to have lunch at her home only.

The taste of Rajma-chawal made by my aunt still lingers in my mouth. We also wanted mom to spend more time at aunt’s house as it allowed us to play unlimited with no botheration of homework.

Neighbourhood meant sharing and loving

One of the reason for a strong neighbourhood concept was that we used to stay in government allotted flats. All these flats were low-rises (2-3 floors) with a huge open area in front of every block. The open area was used to play cricket, football, badminton. When kids were away to school, the open area was used by all the neighbourhood women. They would sit in the winter sun on modhas (sitting stools made of bamboo) and have tea.

There was a strong bonding amongst neighbourhood that was visible during weddings in a family. The neighbours would accommodate guests who had come for the wedding at their home. If mom and dad had to rush out of the city for an emergency, kids used to stay at neighbourhood aunts place. Your friendly neighbourhood was like an extended family and the keywords to describe the relationship were “Bonding”, “Sharing” and “Loving”.

But as life moved on, the concept of your friendly neighbourhood got diluted. I will not say that it has vanished all together but in metro cities, it is not a very strong concept these days.

Your friendly neighbourhood can be broadly classified in the following categories. This is without malice to anybody.

Your friendly neighbourhood focusing on the house next door

Out of all the neighbourhood families, there is one which always takes a special interest in your family. In other words, your house is like a center-of-gravity for them. It attracts their attention most of the time. Who came to your house? When did the party at your house get over? Why is your husband seen at home most of the time? Is he not going to the office these days. These are only a few of the questions which need to be answered to satiate their hunger for neighbourhood information.

The house that carries the creepiness of The Silence of the Lamb

There is this one house in the complex which arouses the interest of everybody in your friendly neigbourhood. This is a mysterious house and at times you wonder whether anybody stays in that home. You have hardly seen any activity in the house. There are times when you made eye contact with the lady staying in the house but the moment her eyes get locked with yours, she smiled and closed the door. The creepiness of the house increases your adrenalin level and to satisfy the sixth sense you enquire through the maid who works there but without much success.

The House of Curd

There is one apartment in the neighbourhood who is like an extended family of yours. If they make a gajar ka halwa, a portion of it will come to your house. And vice versa if you make a dal ki kachori, it will go to their place on the same plate. This is a neighbourhood which reminds you of your childhood days with no boundaries between your and neighbours house.I would lovingly call this neighbourhood, the house of curd, as most of the time when the curd gets over in their house they will ring the bell and ask for that little portion of curd (also called javan) to make curd at home.

The Sound of Music

How can I miss on the house which scores high on the decibel level 24/7? The increased noise level is either from a constantly quarreling couple or from a couple of kids who find freedom at home after school when the parents are away to work. Sometimes you wonder about this fire and ice relationship between the husband and wife. During morning time you can see them walking together, laughing away to glory as if blessed by an angel while in the night it seems the devil takes over the house. The kids carry the same DNA and keep the house alive during the day-time leaving the evening for parents.

The Pretty Woman in your friendly neighbourhood

A couple of blocks away is a house where you will see a couple of young, beautiful, well-dressed women who have a taste in life. This is one house which always attracts the male bees. On the other hand, the female bees in the neighbourhood are envious of this house. Guys who have recently purchased a Harley Davidson, Triumph or a Bullet give a full-throttle as they are approaching the house.

The ones with BMW’s and Audi drive slowly to show their respect to the house and also to get a glimpse. This is one house in your friendly neighbourhood which always attracts a 24/7 help. So if these women are having a starting problem with their car, guys from the neighbourhood will go all out to make the engine start. In case there is no power in the house, there are guys who will rush to check the meter.

The Fast and Furious lane in your friendly neighbourhood

This is one house that belongs to the show-off family. It is at times irritating to the entire neighbourhood as for 4 members in the house they have 5 cars in their collection. There is a BMW, a Mercedes, 2 Audi’s and a Maruti Swift Dzire. At times you wonder what is the fun of having so many expensive cars in the collection when the family only uses the Maruti frequently. The cars have occupied the limited parking space in your apartment block and most of the time don’t leave their slot. The family prefers having limited interaction in your friendly neighbourhood.

No Country for Old men

Just 2 blocks before the last apartment in the lane, there is a quiet house whose owners are an old couple in their late 70’s. The Uncle and Aunty seem to be very caring for each other. You can see the uncle reading the newspaper in the morning while the aunty makes tea for him. In the winter afternoon, you can see both of them sitting in the central park enjoying the sunshine. The aunty is peeling an orange and while the uncle refuses to have more.

You keep telling your spouse that even you would also love to enjoy life like them when you reach their age. The wife doesn’t agree. She feels that there is a sense of loneliness in the eyes of the old couple and you can see they are missing their grandkids who study in the US. She feels that though their kids and grandkids are settled in the US it’s still No Country for Old Men.

Till then a big goodbye from the author in your friendly neighbourhood.

Read more such stories on my blog:

Walking down the memory lane: Refreshing memories of past

Life Skills: The art of making your children street smart

Life Skills: The art of making your children street smart