The first move

I think the first move happened in 1988 - not 1989.

Thats when HMT built the new B and C type quarters. Like for A.S.5/2, my dad became the first occupant for the C-7/2 also. Unlike the old one, this was bigger, with two bedrooms and better dining and living rooms. Unlike the old one, this was on the first floor. Unlike the old one this did not have a backyard and no neem, no spinach, no pudina and no guava. Unlike the old one, it had toilet inside the doors. But unlike the old one, it had a lot of air, windows on three sides and an electric calling bell.

I was a visitor there as I was doing my engg. and visited home every weekend with a load of laundry. I used to enjoy the west facing window in the kitchen area which gave a good view of all three sides, the regular pedestrians, the buses on the main road, the grazing goats and the most beautiful of all, the rain approaching from the west. The roar was so audible and I can see the thick semi-transparent opaqueness arriving as if its a tsunami. Though I never heard the word tsunami that time.

Time had run a lot by that time. We were no longer kids and the new supposed-to-be kids were born adults. Everyone used to get locked in front of movies on Sunday evening. Thats when I used to have my evening walk. Walk down the road into the lonely woods emptying my brain of all the things I wanted to unload from the past one week in college. And to get refreshed for a new week.

A notable miss was paapithalla, the old lady who used to explain the floods during the ninetees. Probably she was mentioning the floods during the Malayalam era ninetees. For no one knew when she was born. And which floods it was. May be it was a tsunami that has supposedly changed the geography of Kerala. That created the port of Cochin. Khader remained active, delivering the morning news paper to almost everyone there. He handled major part of our movement from A.S.5/2 t0 C-7/2. Before that major part, a lot of minor part has been moved on multiple trips on bic and scooter. I did not get involved in all the packing and shipments, as I was a weekend visitor. But I found everything was packed. No misses. From the old bedsheets which could one day be used as footmat for bathrooms (they are still in my mom's cupboard) to the little red sweater that I had worn when I was around 3 - everything. There was no packer, no mover, no survey and no insurance. Need to be moved. Move it.

Today I had the shipment survey at my apartment. He gives a set of documents - Power of Attorney, Customs declaration, Insurance valuation, policy, this and that. Then he goes around and lists down everything that we have. I have shipment allowance for one 40" container by sea and two 20" ones by air. After survey he says - well there's not much. I thought we will need two days - but we can finish in one day. And not much stuff for even one air shipment container too. Fits into one box.

Its only today that I feel of the move. So far, it was just something in emails. Today this guy has come to pack things up. Man, I am leaving this apartment. The sofas, the dining table, the cots, the chest all goes too. I will not see the Hiroo towers Sakura trees bloom next time. I will not be able to capture another cycle of seasons through my front windows.