Five
years, and five different places – that has been my record. I have been moving
places ever since I got married and because of it you can safely call my
marriage quite ‘happening’. Oh! All that moving!! It has been lovely, it has
been terrible. The organizer in me is enthralled, the lazy me is miserable. Travelling
across the country with bags and baggage has been quite a mixed experience!!
Why
we move? It is just my luck. Probably, on a dreamy day I would have earnestly prayed
to have a life of travel, and at that exact moment, the gods would have decided
to pay attention to me! Maybe I should complain to the gods for their untimely
consideration. Or maybe I should be grateful that they didn’t listen on the
other days when I had some really crazy and dangerous prayers like volunteering
in Sudan or becoming a cow or climb the Alps!! Well, now that this gift has
been bestowed on me (with no returns policy); I think I better enjoy it.
Where
do we move? If you could put a pen on one corner of the Indian Peninsular and
without lifting the pen tried to draw an X in any way but ensure that you cover
the northern, western and southern edges of the country – you can trace my path
and the places I have stayed. The common points about these places are: they
are at least 10 kms away from the nearest civilization (often a small village
town), they have exactly one restaurant to dine out, but they are all serviced
by Flipkart and Amazon!!
How
do we move? While driving through the countryside highways, have you ever been
disgruntled by those overloaded, tarpaulin covered, senile looking trucks which
seem to struggle to move ahead but are insane enough to stay on the fast line?
Those are the trucks which have carried my house from place to place. None of
those awesome, jazzy moving companies for us! They don’t service these unknown
places we keep moving to. Now you know never to call me when my belongings are
in transit. I would eat your ears out along with my nails.
The
only other element in this moving business is the packing and unpacking!! It is
the most crazy, stressful, soul searching activity which happens in our house.
I always took pride in the fact that I have very few belongings and live minimalistic. But that feeling exists only till the time arrives when I have to
pack up my house. Somehow the truck gets completely filled, whichever size you get.
It is only at packing time, that I discover the many things which my husband
and I don’t use, but then there is barely any time to discard/dispose/donate
them, so they get carried to the next place. In the new place, we do not know
anyone or anywhere we can discard/dispose/donate, so those unused items remains
packed and sent to the darkest corner of the house till the next move – thus
the cycle repeats!!
Packing
is also the only time there are clashes between the different agents who are
packing, i.e., me, husband, maids, packers/truck handlers – how should the
paintings be wrapped, how to pack important items like books and saris, should
the fridge go horizontal or vertical, should we take the lovely plants I collected
or let them go (not really family members), should we bother wrapping the
mattresses or let them be to be used by the truck driver at during his journey,
etc. The worst and most difficult decision to make is got to do with our car.
Do we drive across the country to the new place in the heat of the Indian
summer or do we send the car in the truck and foot the bill for all the
scratches and damages which happens as a result? Tough decision!
I
think you got the picture about our moving days and decisions. It is not all
that bad and quite interesting for novices. In case you do want to visit us, I
would highly recommend you to do so when we are in the process of the Move. You
would be extremely entertained as well as educated!! And of great use to me J
