My fellow 2 on 1 Friday blogger Shackman has recently relocated to California and I was inspired to suggest this topic by that move. Please go over to Shackman’s blog to see how he tackles the topic.
My pre-marriage and the first year after that was life living out of a suitcase from the age of 16 for me. I had relocated a few times between Hyderabd and Chennai/Mumbai and also Ahmedabad before my marriage in November 1968. Relocating was simply a matter of packing my suitcase and moving to a hotel, hostel or paying guest accommodation and did not make for much effort or difficulty.
The first home we set up after marriage was in Delhi and since it was for a stay of just a few months, we had taken a barsati on rent and hired furniture and bare minimum utensils and a stove but both of us lived off suitcases.
The first proper home that we lived in was in Mumbai between 1970 and mid 1973 when we acquired furniture, cooking utensils, linen, etc and when we had to move to Kolkata, we were exposed for the first time to relocating with major packing, discarding etc but, the redeeming feature of the exercise was that we could hire professional packers and movers who did the dirty work, stored the stuff till we found accommodation at Kolkata and unpacked for us too.
From that first move, we relocated to Kerala, back to Mumbai on three occasions, Delhi and Bengaluru and finally to Pune in 1990 where we bought our home where I continue to live till date. During these relocations we moved and set up new homes on eight separate occasions till we put in our final roots.
I had to relocate on two separate occasions afterwards to Tirupur but since it was to furnished accommodation on both occasions I simply had to pack a suitcase. Whenever Urmeela came to stay with me there, she too simply had to come with a packed suitcase. So those two relocations were not really relocations in the true sense.
The only major disruption that we experienced during the relocations was in the schooling of our son Ranjan which, we once even had to solve by admitting him to a boarding school for three years. In retrospect, those three years were also the most disturbing for both of us despite frequent meetings with him at his school as well as his coming home for his vacations. Another experience that I would not wish on anyone.
I can therefore confidently assert that I am a seasoned and well-experienced relocator. I would not like to do that again though as I am now too well ensconced in my comfort zone in Pune where it will be three decades next year, since we relocated.
Very similar experiences to mine – the adventure always heightened by the presence of children. I trust my adventures concluded with this last one.
For your sake, I hope so too.
I have lived in California for 51 years, and in this house for more than 30 years, which is where we raised our kids. You sure did a lot of moving and it sounds like you are happy in your home of 30 years, as am I in mine.
In thirty years we get used to our comfort zones and I am not at all surprised that you are happy in your home just as I am too.
I’ll spare you my life long moving adventures. I think you’ve heard enough about them through the years on the peanut.
suffice to say I guess I’m where I will be now. the marine won’t move. he has a lovely home here that is paid for. and it would be foolish to leave that. and I wouldn’t move because I would simply miss his company too much! simple.
case closed. and this apartment has grown on me in the last 4 years.
so I’m trying to bloom where I’m planted… as the overused saying now goes.
and I’m finding that it’s good exercise for my inner growth. LOL! 🙂
Bloom where I am planted is a nice expression. Right now in the midst of my annual end of the monsoon cold and fever situation, I would say that I am trying not to wilt where I am planted!
Your adult life sounds a lot like my early life. Being a military kid, we didn’t exactly live in houses but we always had to start from scratch in furnishing an apartment.
Once Dad retired you’d think all of us would find a place to call home and stay there, but that didn’t happen either. My parents moved 3 different times while I moved 6 times before moving into the house I’m in now, where I’ve been for 19 years. I hate having to think of what I’d go through if I even had to give this house up, knowing this 5-bedroom house with an almost full basement is packed to the gills! Ugh! lol
Mitch Mitchell recently posted..Be Responsible For Your Own Life
If you have stayed put for 19 years in the same house, I am not surprised that you feel the way you do.
I have become attached to homes over the years but never to the point where I miss them once I moved on. I think there must be gypsy blood in me. I am quite content where I am now. The one place that disturbed me a little was a townhouse in a lovely complex with a crack dealer next door. It was only later I discovered that most successful drug dealers move into so-called respectable houses in good areas and run successful businesses there.
XO
WWW
Every now and then, something happens that brings back memories of living in a different city and that always brings back a lot of nostalgia and occasionally pain too.
I hate moving but I’ve done it so much I’m pretty efficient at it.
Experience does make one efficient.