When Saarthak Dutt, an engineering student, finished his semester exams this May and was planning a trip to Lucknow, his hometown, he got an e-mail from his landlord based in Singapore. The mail was the mandatory one-month notice, saying that the contract could not be renewed and Dutt and his four friends with whom he shared the apartment could look out elsewhere.

The next one month — his annual break — was spent in Pune, looking for an apartment. The frenzied house search proved unfruitful as most landlords said they couldn’t rent out the house to students, as the housing society did not allow students as tenants.

“Every other apartment owner, whom we approached, said we should get our parents here if we wanted to stay on. Finally, we decided that our mothers will take turns and stay with us,” said Dutt.

Meena Dutt, his mother, is not too pleased with the two months that she is forced to spent in Pune before another mother takes over. “I work as a teacher in Lucknow and it is difficult for me to come every 10 months and stay here. People here should understand that students too need a place to stay if they are to study here, especially when the college is not providing a hostel facility. Colleges should look into the matter.”

Staying in Pune was not on Sabita Banerjee’s agenda till October 2006, when her daughter Amrita Banerjee, a management student then, moved into an apartment in Bhonsale Nagar and made an emergency call to her mother asking her to come and stay in Pune.

“I have been staying in Pune — on and off — for three years now. My husband is a retired railways officer so I could manage to come; had he been working, it would have been difficult. Even after my daughter has passed out of college, things haven’t changed as she could not get an apartment as she did not qualify as a ‘family’ without me. I’m sure the situation is different in other cities,” she said.

But not all are as lucky. Meenakshi Deshpande, a design student, had planned to stay on in Pune after completion of her studies this year, but will now have to leave the city. The reason is all too familiar — she is not able to fulfil the ‘family’ criteria. “Landlords don’t want to let go of a well-behaved tenant, and at the same time, they want to follow the housing society rules. Students are also to blame as many of them behave in an unruly manner — probably the reason behind the rigid stand taken by the housing societies in the first place.”

Shobha Patwardhan who owns a house near a college in the city puts the issue in perspective. “I constantly get requests from students asking if I can rent out the house to them. However, the housing society norms disallow this. Students have a tendency to party late into the night, creating a ruckus. They also drink and bring girls over to their apartments at late hours, which is against the rules of the society. They also litter the society premises and disturb families. I had to wait a long while as families were hard to find.”