Single life is tough in the city - TeluguPeople.com News

Hyderabad: If you're single ' and by single we mean unmarried ' and you're looking to make a home for yourself in the city, you're in for a tough ride. One of the first problems young professionals face when moving to the city is finding a place to live.

'Every home-owner wants to rent out their property only to a family, too bad if you're single and in search for a place to live. And that's not all, the moment they hear that you want to live with roommates, the landlord immediately jacks up the rent,' says Anil Kumar Kuchibhatla, a business analyst living in the city, ruefully.

Shiv Kumar, a freelance photographer and architect who travels a lot for work, agrees with him. 'The only apartments one can find if you are single and want to live alone are either really tiny, shady looking places or are prohibitively expensive. I had to finally give up the idea of living alone and find a roommate to share my two bedroom apartment with,' says Shiv.

Arunlekha Sengupta, an advertising executive, thinks that the search is tougher if you are a single woman. 'People are so wry of renting to single women! For some reason landlords assume that you are some sort of harlot just because you want to live by yourself,' she opines.

If you think that finding a place to live is only half the battle, you'd be absolutely right. Because even if you find the perfect place you still have to find the perfect roommate, manage your utilities and get all the housework done.

'I spend so much time getting stuff repaired around the house. All my weekends are gone!' moans Monica Bansal, who works as an adwords representative, continuing, 'Getting housework done is another giant problem ' a good bai is hard to come by.'

For Anil, getting the housework done is one of the biggest challenges of living alone. 'Finding a cook and a maid for an apartment occupied with single men is the most difficult tasks ever. Even after you find one, they assume we don't know anything about hiring a bai ' which we don't ' and charge exorbitant prices. We have to bargain hard just to pay twice the actual amount!' he complains.

Annoying neighbours are another downside to living alone. 'I have such nosy neighbours. Everytime the doorbell rings they peep to see who is coming to visit me. And then there is watchman. He keeps peeping in my window to see what is going on!' says Arunlekha, indignantly.

Others have to deal with worse. 'My landlord has issues with me throwing parties at my place,' says Monica, continuing, 'That's not all. He even has issues when male friends come to visit!'

'Every time we throw a party, even if we are not too loud, my neighbour comes knocking on my door, asking me to wrap things up. It's so irritating!' says Anil.

While the woes of living alone might be many, often there is no way around it. When you have no family in the city in which you are working, what else can you do?