Though the title reads "bachelor", do not assume its a problem only for the boys. Girls equally, if not more go through the same dilemma. Gone are those days, when you can be assured that you will get a job in the same city you live in. Getting a job in the same state is considered to be a blessing nowadays. After all, you can't spent years waiting for an opportunity close to your home. Today, we all want to be independent, don't we? Why to bother our parents every now and then for financial help and give up the option of living life on our own terms? As a result, we all end up in a new city with our luggage and a big question- Where to stay?
If your company is good enough, you might get free accommodation for some days. Within this time, you are expected to find a new nest to settle in. But out of thousands of branches, which one to choose? During this period, you will probably have to leave a bit early from your office for this mission. If you have a group of equally minded people and the same mission, you can try searching for a flat. A flat has its own advantages. A fully secluded premise to stay in. You can come in and go out whenever it suits you. As you are among your so called friends, you have less clashes. You sleep late a day and find the others are yet to get up. Is cooking a problem? No worries, keep a cook who can prepare your favorite dishes. Though a flat setup may seem to be costly, but most of the cost gets divided among all the flat mates and it becomes quite reasonable. But it has a few drawbacks too.
Firstly, the huge security deposit which needs to be given at the beginning will definitely pinch your pocket. It can hover anywhere around lakhs. If you want to invest lesser, you will have to compromise with the standard and area of the flat. Secondly, you might be denied even a visit to a flat if the owner or broker is not comfortable with the region you are from. A flat can be unfurnished, semi-furnished or fully furnished. You will have to decide if renting furnitures would be a good option instead because for every item you get along with the flat, the rent increases. There will be someone who will suddenly declare that they can live without a TV, wi-fi or sofas. It can so happen that you might be a neat freak and your friends might be used to staying in rooms uncleaned for months. If that happens, you are in a soup, as you will not get a single helping hand. Trust me, convincing everyone, be it for a trip, movie or cleaning rooms, is not at all an easy task. A flat itself comes with lot of responsibilities. You need to pay a lot of bills other than your usual rent like gas, electricity, wi-fi, etc. Dividing those amongst yourselves is a real tough job. Then there are societal problems. You will note a lot of frowns if you get an opposite gender friend to your flat. You might feel that you receive much less water compared to other flats and you will undoubtedly consider the reason that the society people is involved in the sabotage as they do not want bachelors among them. Late night parties (both alcoholic & non alcoholic) are a sin if you plan to play music for the entire duration. You are always expected to maintain a minimum decorum through out your stay. If a flat mate leaves the flat, it can be a real trouble finding a new one. The longer the delay, the more will be the financial pressure on the rest of you.
After going through this long paragraph, you might be thinking that PGs must be undoubtedly the better option. It does have it's own upper hands in few ways. You get a lot of choices for rooms to select from. Choose single room or sharing room (any number above 2) depending on your socially mixing capabilities and pocket. All costs are included in the rent, from wi-fi to dish TV. You do not need to worry about cooking after returning tired from office as you will get ready food at the table. No need to worry about cleaning rooms as you would get room service frequently depending on the hospitality of the owner. There is no headache of maintenance as you just need to inform the owner or the responsible person and that problem will get sorted. For people working in shifts, small rooms with less occupants like in PGs are good as the the scope of disturbing others reduces a lot. You get a chance to meet a lot of people (often from different regions) and increase your contacts. If you get bored, go to one of your new friend's room and have an adda. Watching IPLs and ISLs can be fun as both you and your room mate might be supporting different teams. The pleasure of taunting your room mate at his/her favorite team's bad performance is just unimaginable. Of course, be ready to taste your own medicine too.
I am quite sure by this time you are persuaded that PG is the better option. But wait a minute.. don't you want to know the problems of staying in a PG? Its very simple, just alter the above so called good points. After staying in a sharing room for sometime, you might realize that you cant't stay with your room mate for some reason and will have to shift to a single room. You might discover that the food made in PG has an influence of that region and it may happen that you do not like it. You might have to end up eating outside food mostly. You will find that even though you choose not to have food from PG, you can't pay any less as costs are all inclusive in the rent, whether you avail the service or not. As room service will happen mostly in the morning when everyone is in office, you might find something is missing (will refrain from using the word 'stolen') unless kept secured under lock and key in your cupboards. You might find the cupboards very small compared to your belongings and half of them will end up remaining in the luggage bags due to lack of space. If once an appliance for eg. washing machine start facing issues, you never know by when it will be repaired as your owner has the right to ignore your requests till he finds the time suitable for himself. This period can be up to weeks. Making new friends can be a myth if you are not mixing type and actively indulge in avoiding people from different states/regions.
I got a chance of staying in both flat and PG and hence listed out the major advantages and disadvantages of both as observed by me. Few of the inputs are from friends who faced similar situations. I still can't decide which is better. But I feel, one should choose a flat only if they plan to stay for quite sometime (more than a year). On the other hand, the ones who intend for higher studies, should opt for PGs due to the advantage of isolation from distractions. But at the end, its all on you and your preferences. I am yet to figure out the answer to the above question. Have you figured it out? If yes, please share - Flat or PG?
If your company is good enough, you might get free accommodation for some days. Within this time, you are expected to find a new nest to settle in. But out of thousands of branches, which one to choose? During this period, you will probably have to leave a bit early from your office for this mission. If you have a group of equally minded people and the same mission, you can try searching for a flat. A flat has its own advantages. A fully secluded premise to stay in. You can come in and go out whenever it suits you. As you are among your so called friends, you have less clashes. You sleep late a day and find the others are yet to get up. Is cooking a problem? No worries, keep a cook who can prepare your favorite dishes. Though a flat setup may seem to be costly, but most of the cost gets divided among all the flat mates and it becomes quite reasonable. But it has a few drawbacks too.
Firstly, the huge security deposit which needs to be given at the beginning will definitely pinch your pocket. It can hover anywhere around lakhs. If you want to invest lesser, you will have to compromise with the standard and area of the flat. Secondly, you might be denied even a visit to a flat if the owner or broker is not comfortable with the region you are from. A flat can be unfurnished, semi-furnished or fully furnished. You will have to decide if renting furnitures would be a good option instead because for every item you get along with the flat, the rent increases. There will be someone who will suddenly declare that they can live without a TV, wi-fi or sofas. It can so happen that you might be a neat freak and your friends might be used to staying in rooms uncleaned for months. If that happens, you are in a soup, as you will not get a single helping hand. Trust me, convincing everyone, be it for a trip, movie or cleaning rooms, is not at all an easy task. A flat itself comes with lot of responsibilities. You need to pay a lot of bills other than your usual rent like gas, electricity, wi-fi, etc. Dividing those amongst yourselves is a real tough job. Then there are societal problems. You will note a lot of frowns if you get an opposite gender friend to your flat. You might feel that you receive much less water compared to other flats and you will undoubtedly consider the reason that the society people is involved in the sabotage as they do not want bachelors among them. Late night parties (both alcoholic & non alcoholic) are a sin if you plan to play music for the entire duration. You are always expected to maintain a minimum decorum through out your stay. If a flat mate leaves the flat, it can be a real trouble finding a new one. The longer the delay, the more will be the financial pressure on the rest of you.
After going through this long paragraph, you might be thinking that PGs must be undoubtedly the better option. It does have it's own upper hands in few ways. You get a lot of choices for rooms to select from. Choose single room or sharing room (any number above 2) depending on your socially mixing capabilities and pocket. All costs are included in the rent, from wi-fi to dish TV. You do not need to worry about cooking after returning tired from office as you will get ready food at the table. No need to worry about cleaning rooms as you would get room service frequently depending on the hospitality of the owner. There is no headache of maintenance as you just need to inform the owner or the responsible person and that problem will get sorted. For people working in shifts, small rooms with less occupants like in PGs are good as the the scope of disturbing others reduces a lot. You get a chance to meet a lot of people (often from different regions) and increase your contacts. If you get bored, go to one of your new friend's room and have an adda. Watching IPLs and ISLs can be fun as both you and your room mate might be supporting different teams. The pleasure of taunting your room mate at his/her favorite team's bad performance is just unimaginable. Of course, be ready to taste your own medicine too.
I am quite sure by this time you are persuaded that PG is the better option. But wait a minute.. don't you want to know the problems of staying in a PG? Its very simple, just alter the above so called good points. After staying in a sharing room for sometime, you might realize that you cant't stay with your room mate for some reason and will have to shift to a single room. You might discover that the food made in PG has an influence of that region and it may happen that you do not like it. You might have to end up eating outside food mostly. You will find that even though you choose not to have food from PG, you can't pay any less as costs are all inclusive in the rent, whether you avail the service or not. As room service will happen mostly in the morning when everyone is in office, you might find something is missing (will refrain from using the word 'stolen') unless kept secured under lock and key in your cupboards. You might find the cupboards very small compared to your belongings and half of them will end up remaining in the luggage bags due to lack of space. If once an appliance for eg. washing machine start facing issues, you never know by when it will be repaired as your owner has the right to ignore your requests till he finds the time suitable for himself. This period can be up to weeks. Making new friends can be a myth if you are not mixing type and actively indulge in avoiding people from different states/regions.
I got a chance of staying in both flat and PG and hence listed out the major advantages and disadvantages of both as observed by me. Few of the inputs are from friends who faced similar situations. I still can't decide which is better. But I feel, one should choose a flat only if they plan to stay for quite sometime (more than a year). On the other hand, the ones who intend for higher studies, should opt for PGs due to the advantage of isolation from distractions. But at the end, its all on you and your preferences. I am yet to figure out the answer to the above question. Have you figured it out? If yes, please share - Flat or PG?
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