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OutlookIndia.com, April 01, 2002
Accommodation Available: Muslims
Don't Apply
Nothing makes you feel lonelier in the
big city as to be house-hunting with the 'wrong' name
MANU JOSEPH
Space is never a crunch in Mumbai for a single male who, like a
paying-guest bathroom, is unattached. With a budget a broker
would later term "better than Yashwant Sinha's",
accommodation is always available. Call a number in the
classifieds section. Any number. "Can I get a place in Dadar
or Worli or Bandra?"
Brokers are men who will never say no. When a caller tells him he
can pay even up to Rs 15,000 per month, many vacant spaces have
already flashed in his mind. He wants to get to work right away.
But first he wants to bond. "What's your name?"
"Mohammed Khan."
And then there is a pause on the other side.
It's a pause that visits this correspondent time and again
throughout a week when he exchanges a decent Christian upbringing
("Christ is the true lord") for a simple Muslim name,
for reasons of professional necessity. "Hello, are you
there?"
Some bubble in the broker has burst. "I am here," he
says, "I'll call you in five minutes. I've to find some safe
houses."
"Yes I want a safe house. But what is a safe house?"
"I'll call you in five minutes," he says and puts the
phone down.
With a brokerage fee equal to two months rent, "which is
negotiable", it's not a surprise that he calls immediately.
"I'll be straight with you Mohammed. Forget Dadar. They
don't want Muslims out there. Worli's a bit tough. I've to check
Bandra. Christians and Hindus get priority there. Will Mahim do?
There are some Muslim houses there. Or how about the
suburbs?"
"Worli sounds good to me".
"What do you do?" the broker asks.
"I work in an IT company."
"Where?"
"Town."
"For how long?" More questions.
The next day the broker sends a boy called Yusuf Khan to show the
house which is in one of those huge residential buildings in
Mumbai from where, theoretically, secularists come. Vaitarna near
the Worli seaface is the kind of place that balanced editorials
are written for.
We have to go to the 12th floor to meet a lady
doc who wants to give out a room as paying guest. In the lift
Yusuf whispers, "We really had to hunt for a place for you.
Very difficult these days. One man has ruined all our
names?"
"Which man?"
He is too nervous to say the name because lift attendants have
good ears. "I mean some people have ruined all our names.
Even this house, I haven't told them you are a Muslim. Try to
impress them. Speak in English." Yusuf endearingly inspects
the fellow Muslim he is trying to find a place for.
What he is looking at is possibly a face that
in its graver moments looks like Mohammed Atta's but can burst
into very pleasant smiles easily due to years of servility as a
paying guest. And it's a face that speaks English. The doctor and
the husband show the room that the broker initially said was
going for Rs 8,000 per month. "It has a separate
entrance." They ask a few casual questions about work and
other things and finally they ask the name.
"Mohammed Khan."
The couple exchange a quick look. Then the man says, "The
place is going for 9,000, you know that right?"
"I thought it was 8."
"No it's 9,000 plus 500 for maintenance."
"OK."
"And I need a photocopy of your passport. And I want to see
the original. And I need two reference letters from people who
know you. I need your company details."
"OK. I will bring the cash, passport and letters
tomorrow."
The next morning the broker calls up and says, "They have a
guest come down suddenly. So they can't give it out on rent right
now. But we can find you another place."
This happens a few times, in Worli, in Colaba, in the heart of
south Mumbai's affluence and in the suburbs. These are not
ghettos, not chawls but generally what are called upper-class
localities.In Bandra, a broker doesn't turn up for an
appointment. I call him up and get a familiar answer. "They
don't want Muslims." This is in the sophisticated Pali Hill
area.
"Fine, but let me at least meet them. I don't look like a
regular Muslim. If I can speak to them, I can convince
them."
"Listen. Get this clear. They don't want to meet Muslims.
But tomorrow I can show you a Muslim house."
To be fair to the city, it's possible for a Muslim to share a
piece of Hindu property. But it's chiefly a matter of luck and a
lot of struggle. "It was always a problem," one broker
tells me. "But in the last few months, things have got
really bad. Every Muslim is looked at as a terrorist. Nobody
wants trouble. Some housing societies have passed resolutions in
their annual GBMS not to let Muslims either buy property or live
as tenants." He himself had finalised a deal for a Muslim in
a plush society in the Khar suburb but the society rejected the
buyer. It's a distrust that is sweeping many Muslims into busy
community ghettos, some filthy, some reasonable. Places that
eventually become "Muslim-dominated areas". Even in the
depressed real estate market, Muslims are selling their property
in Hindu-dominated areas and moving into what they perceive as
places where they will be safe in a riot. While it may be true
that Hindu tenants are not welcome in predominantly Muslim areas,
brokers say a Muslim landlord in a "neutral locality"
would not specify that he doesn't want Hindus. For that will be
bad economics. A Muslim media professional who wanted to buy
property in Borivili's IC colony was turned down by the housing
society. After some more searches, she found a place in the
distant Kandivili East suburb where, she says, "the
construction was too new to have a society in place. The builder
was just desperate to sell flats to just anybody."
Since the brokers are showing "Mohammed Khan" places
they mostly deem as "safe", I decide to shed the
pseudonym and come clean with a familiar enterprising broker,
S.K. Singh, whose karma says that being good to bachelors comes
back to you later as brokerage fee. But even he looks horrified
when I ask him to take me to see some homes and introduce me as
Mohammed Khan. "Are you mad," he asks. "I'll lose
their trust, their contact. They'll never deal with me again if I
take a Muslim to them. They tell me right away they don't want
Muslims."
"Why?"
"They're not comfortable. They feel however straight a
Muslim may be, something is always wrong. They also feel Muslims
are dirty." So we decide Singh will show me the building and
hide somewhere. "Mohammed Khan" will not let out even a
whisper of his name. Somewhere in an affluent building in
Prabhadevi, the door opens. It's a one-bedroom flat that's going
for Rs 15,000 rent with Rs 10 lakh deposit. The head of the
family after pleasant inquiries asks the name.
"Mohammed Khan."
He thinks a while. There is nothing rude about him. He just looks
a man who wants something to just go away. Very politely he asks,
"Your company will pay the deposit?"
"Yes."
"OK," he says, "Come after a while. I have to talk
to the society."
"About?"
"Oh nothing. I have to just inform them about...you know...I
have to just take care of some formalities."
Down below Singh keeps asking, "You didn't tell him you are
my contact right? He will kill me if he knew."
Many blocks away, another house is going vacant. The landlord
owns a medical shop nearby. Singh as usual is hiding, out of
sight. Taking a break from his customers, the landlord turns to
me. And asks the question. "Your name?"
"Mohammed Khan."
Somewhere in the background the last match in the series against
Zimbabwe is proceeding to a pleasant end. But the imbalanced
Douglas Marillier has just walked in and the ghost of his
fearsome knock in the first one-dayer flashes before the eye. The
owner shakes his head and says, "We're still thinking about
giving our house on rent. We're not sure. And even if we do, we
prefer vegetarians."
Marillier is bowled with a beautiful yorker. The bowler is
jubilant. He is punching the air in ecstasy and on his
sweat-drenched shirt is written Zaheer Khan. Wonder if he would
have found a roof in Mumbai, if he worked in an IT company. But
for sure, in the slog overs, that's a name most of the nation
trusts. It's all very confusing.