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Are you single? Then no room for you! — My unexpected Matheran story

By Pankti Jog* 
“Are you single? Then you can’t get a room… not just in our hotel, madam, but in any hotel here. Sorry!”
Imagine hearing this a day before your trip—how would you feel? Angry? Shocked?
Why on earth should a single traveler be denied a room? Can’t someone travel alone?
You feel like throwing a hundred questions at them… but then you realize you’re standing at the airport, and the hotel manager has already hung up the phone.
Well, I made another booking. Anyway, this was a spontaneous trip, not something carefully planned. So I told myself—maybe it’s fine if this plan too gets canceled!
But I had to find out why “singles” aren’t allowed rooms. So, I looked up the number for the Matheran police station and spoke in detail with PI Sonawane.
“Madam,” he said, “what can I tell you… in the past four months, there’s been one suicide every month here. And all of them were single travelers. So hotel owners decided not to give rooms to single people anymore. They don’t want their hotels to be associated with suicides.”
After a long conversation, PI Sonawane agreed that however serious the problem, banning single travelers wasn’t the solution. He spoke to the hotel owners himself. Later, both the police and the hotel called me back:
“Please come, madam. No problem now! We’ve made a rule that every single traveler’s details will be shared with the police station.”
But that’s not really a solution either. What difference does it make if the police have your information? How would that stop someone determined to take their life? Under the name of “safety,” they’ve created this illusion that the police must have everyone’s details.
And it makes you wonder—why would anyone go to a beautiful place like Matheran to die? Yet it happens. It’s a sign of growing mental fragility in our society. Our elders lived through hardships and scarcity with grace and laughter. But we—when faced with small setbacks, sorrows, or shocks—start thinking of ending it all.
Maybe that’s the real issue that needs addressing, not the idea of a “single traveler.”
---
*Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel

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