In the last few decades the housing scene in Chennai (that was previously Madras) has changed a lot. Individual houses, or row of houses surrounded by a patch of garden, an occasional standalone building with 4/6/8 flats have now given way to multi-story apartment complexes, many in newer developing suburbs. Appreciating real estate prices, decrepit state of old homes, congestion, urbanization, etc, has made people fan out to these so-called gated communities with the hope that there is help in numbers, safety in numbers, ……unity in numbers??
A gated community could be a motley collection of homes within a compound with a gate and a watchman, or an apartment complex with a state-of-the-art app on residents’ devicestracking every movement into and out of the complex. So the ‘bagadoor’ of bygone days is now replaced by a sentry, or sentry and a smart app.
My discussion with several friends from different gated communities has led me to conclude that the basic issues everywhere are generally the same. Almost all of these complexes have the same squabbles over the same petty issues – with the residents roughly divided pro and against. You have warring factions like – owners and tenants, young parents versus retired seniors, pet parents versus those who fear anything on fours…you get the picture right?
Whatever be the differences – all residents are united in their expectations from those managing the society affairs: Fort Knox kind of security for their homes, armed commando guards against intruders, yet doorstep delivery round the clock for their online orders, potable water from every spout (even toilet cistern not exempt), backup power at all times, a complex free from rodents, primates, mosquitoes and termites (read 3D isolation – terrestrial, aerial and subterranean) and calamity proof- even natural – which now has become a yearly routine.
Most gated community resident’s association have a forum, a communication app, that allows residents to voice their grouses and concerns, give their opinions, solicited or otherwise, when issues crop up, and those in charge take note of them. Sometimes this free flow of communication from the cosy confines of the apartment living rooms, leads to digital wars and has to be tackled efficiently by the administrator. They must do a fine balancing act when requests are made for voices of playing children to be muffled, or barking pets to be muzzled, or sedately walking seniors not to be ruffled!
Every society has members with certain characteristic behaviours, which come out in the chat forums – some of which are given below:
The Instigator: Any random passing comment by someone in the forum will be repeated, heckled by him till a few respond, then some more, and soon many have joined sides and there is a war of words – sometimes very heated, causing the administrator to intervene.
The Fence Sitter: Will observe the trend of the discussions for some time, and then joins the leading side. He may have total amnesia and switch sides when the same issue is discussed some other time.
The Peacekeeper: This one periodically requests people to make peace and keep harmony in the community. When tempers run high, nobody is listening!
The Bystander: Not a word or comment, but I seriously suspect this one is LOL reading the discussions.
The Legal-Eagle: Will give inane one-liners. Example: The law gives every child the right to play, ( Yes – but what does the law have to say when the javelin stops one inch short of my nose??) or As per law, you cannot prevent people from feeding stray animals. (With the growing tribe of animal lovers – this is now common knowledge.)
The Remote Operator: Is not affected by the day-to-day issues as she is generally away for six months at a stretch, but will be an active commentator as she has time on her hands. Worse she will extol the effective handling of issues in the society where she resides, it may be the Far East or Further West!
The Secular Club: Celebrating anything that has a religious flavour is anathema to them. With the result in our society, we celebrate only the two national days. The new year eve celebrations have stopped as they are still debating which day is ‘New Year’ – the Thiruvalluvar day in January, or the start of the Tamil Chithirai month in April, or the Gregorian calendar.
Forward Finger First: Owes allegiance to several chat groups and takes the last line “share with as many groups as you can” in letter and spirit. Censured several times but old habits die hard.
The Oldest Resident: Unlike the Oldest Member in PG Wodehouse’s golf stories, this one doesn’t have the foggiest when his memory is jogged to recollect some key factors when he first moved in. ‘Well it could be this… or err it maybe that also….’ Such people, with due respect, are best escorted to hoist the national flag, with the hope of inculcating patriotic fervour among the youth.
The Holier than Thou: She will apologise profusely for any disturbance caused when a couple of nails are hammered in her apartment, or she will thank effusively for mundane tasks done by service personnel…. you get the inkling of her persona right??
The Science Experts: Yes, we must promote ‘the scientific temper’ of our fellow residents. However, this group is known at times to give bizarre and unchallenged ‘scientific’ explanations for cracks in the building, water leakage, side effects of treated water, etc. These members had a field day during the Covid era.
So the above is a microcosm of a residents’ society.
Like anywhere else, a benefit or convenience once given cannot be rescinded. So the communication app remains in the hands of the residents, at will to make their expectations known. The elected office bearers try their best… someone has to do the job right??
With so much participation in matters of trivia you would expect a good number to turn up at notified meetings to vote on important matters… well in most cases the quorum is barely met…notwithstanding the tea and snacks served!
P.S. Pronouns are used for convenience – they are not gender specific.