Home Truths

Recently Emran Hashmi alleged that a housing society in Mumbai didn’t give him a No Objection Certificate to buy a flat because he was a Muslim. A lot of us might find it shocking that why would somebody deny home to a star. But he is not the first case. Earlier it happened with Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Saif Ali Khan and many others who chose to keep it quiet. The reason I am writing this is because the incident has direct echo in my life. Finding an accommodation is indeed difficult for Muslims in India.

In 2003, I went to Delhi for my further studies. The first house I stayed in Hauz Khas belonged to Muslims. They didn’t have any identification issues. In fact they thought we were Hindus until Eid when we went out to pray wearing the traditional attire. After three years, few of my friends came from Assam and we decided to move to a bigger place because the space wasn't enough. We moved to Gautam Nagar just couple of miles away. We went through a property dealer and he had to do the police verification for us. It took unusually long for us and the dealer got frustrated after a point of time, “Otherwise it happens so quickly, they are taking so much time this time”. Soon police landed up in our flat to check our identities. There was perhaps order from top level to check every Muslim who seeks house in the capital. I knew that the whole verification was being done because we were Muslims, so did the officer and he was not at all comfortable doing it. He kept his cool throughout and politely replied despite some of my caustic comments.

That was the only time I changed my house in Delhi. Last year I came to Calcutta and I didn’t need to worry about my accommodation as my cousin was already staying here. He had come to Calcutta a year before. The day he had come to see the present accommodation Calcutta was flooded with rain. They searched the house walking in knee deep water. The landlady was shifting to a new house and she wanted to make her present house a PG for boys. After the initial talk when she learned that they were Muslims, the landlady flatly refused that she can’t rent her house to Muslims. After the intervention of her ‘progressive’ son, they were allowed. Two years hence, my cousin and his friend are the only guys living in the flat throughout and a darling of the landlady. We pay rent on time, we behave well with her. Whenever she comes, she sits only in our room. We are even more favourite with our maid. Many people came and went, but we have been living here without any issues.

Coming back to Hashmi and Co, this is a lesson for them to know that people love their characters on screen, not necessarily their real selves. I also want to point out that I personally don’t have any grudge with the policeman or this landlady. But when such incidents occur with someone else, those not-so-pleasant experiences come to haunt me, or should I say “us”.