Hi guys, just wanted to post of a true event that took place in my life when I was posted in another town from home. I do understand its long and certain conversations may seem unnecessary but hey that's how it happened.
I'm Sean R, originally from Mumbai, India. now settled in Bangalore, India.
Last year February 2024, I was offered a managerial post in a MNC however it required me to relocate to Bangalore, prior to the move I lived with my parents in Mumbai and as a 29 year old life was good, Eat nice home cooked meals, work hard and party harder but for the sake of my career I decided to take up the opportunity and move to a new city all alone, the first month I was alloted company accommodation and I was unhappy with the canteen and travel distance to office hence I decided to look for alternate housing options near my work place and things were tough, no one was willing to rent out their apartment to a bachelor, A few days went by and luck favoured me, thru some family connection one of my relatives from my dad side had a apartment near my office nothing too lavish just a 2 bhk of an almost 40 year old building.
In the first week of April 2024, I moved into my relatives place on the 4th floor, for the next few days I got busy in settling down, buying groceries and other house hold goods as my relatives hadn't stayed at the place for the over 5 years (just once a year cleaning job was carried out with the Neighbors help). On the 4th floor were 3 other flats my next door neighbour was a old Punjabi man who lived with a caretaker, Mr. Singh was nearly 70 and used to be stuck inside his home except for his daily wheel chair rounds in the morning and evening.
Opposite my house was a Muslim family they had purchased both the other 2 flats on the floor and converted it into a one house, The Rizwi family was a joint family and over the few months I got all their names, Salman Rizwi 56 and his wife Fatema a few years younger they had 3 kids, 2 daughters were married and moved out of town, their Son was Rehan he too was married was working in the gulf, along with Salman, his younger brother Salim and wife Suhana lived their 4 sons all working and settled in the gulf. My interaction with the Rizwi family was only during festivals when we exchanged sweets and food.
The ground floor and 1st floor had Shops and offices and the 2nd floor was closed as the place was the residence of the building owners who lived in Australia, The 3rd floor was occupied by 2 families, A Gujarati family, Jitesh Parmar 42 and his wife Sneha 40, they have 2 kids Devi 18 and Mayank 21, both were in college and Jitesh owned the Grocery store on the ground floor of the building, they too had converted 2 flats like the Rizwi family and had been living in Bangalore for more than 2-3 decades if not more.
The other family to occupy the last 2 flats on the 3rd floor was Shailesh Gujjar 75, who lived with his Son Paresh 43, Daughter in law Damini 42, and his Granddaughter Payal 19.
The second week of April, I was pretty much focused on work to help me avoid being lonely and one evening I met Mayank (Jitesh's Son) as I was about to enter the building, We both got to talking about his college and my career, I did find out later that night that he too smoked cigarettes and from then onwards I usually invited him over to my place to hangout. I didn't mind him smoking up as I did finally have some company and this went on for a week, before he brought the topic of inviting His sister Devi and Payal Gujjar to my place to hangout like watch TV or listen to music, I gave my okay and the next day we 4 were hanging out at my place, Mayank and me did avoid smoking in front of the girls, however they knew about our trips to the balcony and were okay with it. So by mid April my house wasn't a graveyard anymore in the evenings, fun and laughter filled the rooms and things were good and though these kids were about a decade younger to me I never felt more at ease and enjoyed their company and college stories.
The following Saturday was my day off, Mayank, Devi and Payal came to my place after breakfast around 10am and this was the day that changed everything.
Mayank in his regular track suit, Devi in a pink and green Salwar kameez and Payal who is a bit modern wearing black 3/4th and Blue Top arrived at my doorstep and I welcomed them in and offered fruit juice tetra packs, Mayank after taking a juice while passing the remaining around suggested we play Truth or dare, to which Payal called him a 8 year old and as we burst out laughing. Devi then spoke "Sean can we trust you to keep a secret and maybe we can tell you things that we 3 discovered about the elder residents of the society".
Mayank: Yes Sean if you promise to keep it a secret, we can tell you some interesting stuff about the neighbours..
Me: off course guys, who would I share this gossip with. You girls are my gossip partners.
Payal: well we 3 have been living here in this building since childhood and we have been best friends so no one questions us when they see the 3 of us playing on different floors.
Devi: 2 months back in February 2023, we 3 were really bored as it was raining heavily outside for and we basically had nothing to do, So we got a new hiding place on the 1st floor as the offices were closed and as we were playing cards on the 1st floor, we heard noises and we crept quietly only to find Fatema aunty kissing Mr. Singh's Caretaker Mr. Ramesh.
Me: what?
Devi: Yes, thats what we saw, shocking right, but there's more, not only did we watch Fatema Aunty and Ramesh many more times after that, we also caught Mr. Singh and Suhana in a compromising position while he was on his daily round a week back in the parking lot one evening that too with Ramesh being present.
Payal: Fatema and Suhana Aunty have some secret affair with Ramesh and Uncle Singh.
Me: No way, I'm staying on the same floor but I never thought something was going on between the Rizwi and Mr. Singh household.
Mayank: Well we all trying to figure out why Fatema and Suhana Aunty are doing this behind their husbands back but what's more interesting is Ramesh is dark and ugly, while Mr. Singh is just old.
Payal: exactly my point, I mean there has to be some logic behind that.
Me: so you guys think that they being blackmailed into doing things.
Devi: That's a possibility we discussed, but you can judge for yourself if we do get a chance to watch them again in future.
Me: hey now since its the four of us, we can take turns keeping an eye out on them, Mayank and me can hangout on the terrace and you both can hangout in the corridors.
Mayank: We actually thought since you neighbours to the both the homes, you can try catching them unaware like going into their houses, asking for something small like sugar or salt.
Me: well thats a nice idea bro, so let me see what Mr. Singh is upto, I'll go over now and ask for something.
Payal: I'll come with you, maybe we can tell Uncle Singh we trying to cook something in your place but we out of salt and sugar.
