My maiden post... our first few days at Mantri Synergy

We had come down from Muscat to Chennai for a week to take possession of our flat (B-1106) and perform a house-warming function.

Though we did face some teething problems in taking possession, we could “hit the ground running”, thanks to the help of our co-residents like Saurav, Sairam (B Wing 12^th Flr), and Prasad ( B Wing 10^th Flr) and the valuable insights we gained from following the blog regularly. Indeed, “being forewarned, we were forearmed”!

The quiet late evenings in the tranquil setting of our balcony more than made up for the day-long stress of having to run after the Propcare team to sort out various issues. Top of our concerns was, of course, to “haul” the senior citizens in our family up and down from Ground to 11^th Flr on Pooja day, in manually operated lifts!

Now to our share of the concerns that are - as a matter of fact - common concerns…

First is the elevation duct – a huge crude gaping hole that runs right up from the ceiling of our 11^th floor MBR balcony to the 12^th floor. This is a dark, un-plastered hole that – in a sparingly inhabited apartment as of now - could be an open invitation for beehives, spiders, lizards and other creepy crawlies! I am yet to comprehend the utility of this duct.

When I took it up with Propcare, they agreed to have it sealed with a gypsum board. However, despite 3 days of personal follow up and assurances, this work was not completed till I left.

I could see this elevation duct in many more flats in B as well as other wings. May be, to the relief of the Propcare team, the others are not as paranoid of lizards as my wife is!

The second concern is that the staircase is poorly lit. Since I climbed up and down (GF to 11^th) twice that evening with the lifts playing truant, I can say this with conviction. There are no lights, per se, on the stairway. The streak of light is often only from beyond the doors of each floor. At floors where the door was shut or near shut, I had to literally grope in the dark at the landing, not sure where the flight of steps started and where they ended! We need some lights on the stairway. Paradoxically, these lights were left on even during the day and my search to locate the control switches were in vain!