Trying to find a house without a broker in Delhi. Or, whatever happened to barsatis?

Dear r/delhi,

I've been trying to find a place to stay in Delhi for some weeks now. The last place I lived in (I studio appt with a little kitchen nook and a bathroom) I had found by pure dumb luck (saw a flier by the landlord pasted on the wall outside the building) and had fun living there (even though it had zero natural light coming into the room, it had a spring mattress and a Tata sky connection. Also, was in hauz khas village, building's terrace had a nice view of the park and lake)

Then I left it for personal reasons (BROKE BROKE BROKE) and bummed around for a few months, but now that I have work in Delhi, and my girlfriend has to be in Delhi for some months also, we decided it would be nice to find a nice flat together.

I set about looking for a small, but furnished room (1RK as they call) in the south delhi area (Green Park and HKV, but expanding it to a 5 Km radius gradually) and didn't find anything on the site (no fliers on walls other than brokers :'( nor on the internet (99acres, magicbricks etc gave me some leads, but none that I found acceptable.)

I'm not saying I wasn't picky, but I did have some basic criteria - room should be in a middle-class residential area, have some sort of open space like a balcony, it should be furnished and the landlords should be cool with a couple staying in it. Needless to say, it was tough.

About a week ago, I gave up on the 'indie' route (online, facebook groups and friendly contacts sufficiently exhausted) and called a few brokers. Mostly what I got were flats that were tangentially related to what I asked them for, but mostly just flats they were stuck with that they were trying to get off their hands. The flats were also the kind that any landlord would have trouble getting someone to take up - deep in the interior, entire floors sharing one bathroom, etc. Sometimes the landlord would have their own list of criteria - no cooking chicken in the house was one.

I did find a broker that (after some bending by me) found me a single room, furnished, in Def Col (I was looking near the Green Park metro station, but whatever) The current tenant won't let us see the room (for some strange reason) but he assures me its great, and the day after tomorrow I'll be going to sign the lease etc and so on. I'm trying to get excited about living there, but its not like the first time, where I saw it and wanted to move in right away.

I don't really have a point to this, and I'm not against brokers or anything, but whatever happened to barsatis? I had a friend who used to live in one in Lodhi colony, cost him like 7k.

Also, have other reddelhitors faced this? Also, I have one day left, so if anyone has any leads on flats in green park or hauz khas, this is the time and place to tell me, I can move in ASAP.

TL;DR - Flat-hunting is hard.

EDIT: The def col place was a bust. Too small, and a family (or two?) of migrant workers living on the terrace :s Now, through a friend, have found a flat in Hauz Khas Village, just down the path from my older flat. Unfurnished and has a balcony too. Only problem is, there is another room on the roof that the landlord hangs out at, and he wants to use the toilet when he's up there... so I guess I'll secretly keep looking for a new place after all!