Nosy Neighbours..

There lay the sundae, looking all glorious and yummy with the chocolate coating melting slowly down its sides, inviting me to reach out for it when alarms went off in my head. I opened one eye and groped around blindly for the annoying source of racket that had so unceremoniously deprived me of my mouth-watering sundae early in the morning. It was 6 am and I screwed up my face as I got up to perform the holy ritual of first light. (And no, it definitely doesn't include sprawling myself on the ground and offering prayers to the sacred deities.) With my hair sticking out in all directions (that includes North, South, East, West, North-West, etc.) I dragged my sleep deprived body towards the wide brown windows and pulled down the curtains one by one. Yes, for my apartment seems to hold some mysterious appeal (about which I have no idea myself) for the neighbours who live around my colony.

Like the lady-who-loves-peeking-from-behind-curtains. She lives on the first floor and has taken it upon herself to observe our daily activities from behind those sacred curtains that hide everything but her crooked little nose and measly left eye (Do not ask me if her right eye is measly too). And ofcourse I have taken it upon myself to deprive her of every juicy little detail that she hopes to find in my apartment. So everyday the battle commences early in the morning at 6 am wherein she wakes up and peeks (and I furiously make sure that the curtains are closed), she cooks and then peeks (And I desperately draw the curtains again), she washes her clothes, slings them up for drying and peeks (you get it by now) and peeks yet and yet again (yeah, drawing curtains can be tiring too).

Or the fat-young-woman who lives on the second floor and sits in the veranda and stares philosophically at our tiny bedroom all day. I can assure you there is absolutely nothing philosophical about our bedroom in the first place and I have come up with the theory that she is trying to find the solution to her ‘fat’ little problems in our ‘tiny’ apartment.

But the most interesting of all is the middle aged man who has made it his daily ritual to sit with his cup of tea in the balcony exactly opposite ours and peek relentlessly into our lives throughout the evening.  Two young women living right opposite his apartment may hold great interest to him, but if he is reading this (which is certainly highly unlikely) I would like to let him know that a middle aged man sitting with his ugly chest bared and staring at us all evening definitely holds no appeal to us.

The funniest thing is we have been living here for over a year now and despite their insane curiosity, these people have hardly ever made the effort to forward some kind of friendly gesture (a smile or a nod of acknowledgement across the street maybe?) towards us.  These people have compelled us to keep our windows shut (that too in this scorching summer, guess they expect us to die of suffocation) and their disapproving gossips about the lifestyle we lead is no secret in the colony. Two young women (sisters that too) living away from home, leading independent lives in the city and forging their own rules must be a great issue of concern indeed (right lady-who-loves-peeking-from-behind-curtains? ).

Reality and truth changes as we grow up. As a child they all said love thy neighbour. What do I say after all these years? Absolutely not.