Ground beneath his feet

MYSTERY GUEST

I was looking at a model of a Rs 1.8 crore apartment at The Hibicus, promoted by Silverglades, when Prabhakar introduced himself. The Hibiscus, no matter how nice it sounds (smells?) is just another apartment complex coming up in Gurgoan, which must be the apartment capital of this country, but I digress. After being offered tea and coffee which I declined (I was there to buy an apartment, wasn't I), we got down to business.

Prabahkar turned out to be articulate, unlike so many other agents you meet across Delhi (refer to the movie Khosla ka Ghosla for the latter variety) at different booking offices. I found we could converse easily.

When the "interrogation" started I could see the guy wondering about the kind of questions that were coming his way. The details I demanded from him ranged from how much green space there would be; what kind of facilities were on offer; power backup; swimming pool(s); how many types of apartments there were in the entire complex; the specifications of a three-bedroom apartment; the cost per sq ft cost; total area of the apartment; as well as why the apartments were so expensive given the fact that they were at least 35 km from Delhi.

Prabhakar was well-prepared and had answers to most of queries. "Can I get the house without any fixtures at all? I want to put stuff that I like, not what the builder likes," I asked, trying to needle him just a wee bit more. Prabhakar, this time, threw back at me his considerable experience in the industry (all of two years) to explain that no builder would give me that option.

On being asked about the earthquake resistance of the buildings that cost, literally the earth, he was silent. Since a chat that I had had only last week on earthquake resistant structures was still fresh in my mind, I stood my ground on this one. Poor Prabhakar had to call up the head office to get me off his back.

SCORE:
The apartments were beautiful though earthquake safety was a glaring weak point, 8/10