You cringe. You whine. You complain. “My arms hurt, my legs are sore!” you cry out. The tables and the windowsill, dotted with various tiny items acquired from here-there-everywhere, stare. They even dare to giggle.
Packing up to leave can be a big pain. Physically, mentally, emotionally. Every muscle of your body and every thinking cell of your brain gets going and if you have no assistance, it’s a dreary great work out scheme.
Suddenly, I wish I had learnt to live like the boys.
Made do with a pair of jeans for a month. Worn and re-worn that shirt and that tee till passersby covered their noses in disgust. But with no lessons in bare-minimums learnt, I now have to struggle to tuck in every item of my elaborate wardrobe. The trolley-bag threatens to burst as I plead with it to hold just one more pair of jeans and just another formal shirt.
What do I do with all the glass and china wear I got from handicrafts exhibitions? That delightful photograph-mug I was gifted on my birthday? The picture frames I had so meticulously arranged in my room? I wrap them in newspaper and sandwich them among the clothes in my bag. May the good Lord keep them from breaking, I murmur.
Slips of paper peep from various nooks and corners. The bill from the restaurant I gave my birthday party in. A rugged piece of paper saying –
1 Amul Dahi
1 Orange Real Juice
1 Drifts mineral water
Credit card receipts. Restaurant menu pamphlets. Tonnes of brown packaging paper, hidden among the silver one I had used to wrap a present. Sorting them all out takes longer than I had anticipated.
I take a big paper bag and dump in every item of food that is no longer edible. A rotten apple, a packet of chips that expired three months ago, some of the namkeen I had been given from home. When the phone rings I reassure Mom – of course I am eating well. That orange you found spoilt last visit went uneaten only because it was hidden behind the shelf.
The curtains fly in a sudden tuft of wind. Looking out of the window, I wonder if there is more of Pune I can take away with me. More whiffs and sights and sounds that I can fold and pack in the confines of my bags.
One glance around the room tells me there are several areas that remain to be folded and packaged. But them I postpone to another afternoon…
Of Paneer, Pulao and Pune 
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You mean you’re moving to Dahlee? Ohnoes! The aalways wraang weather and even more wraang men?
Well aanyways, haave fun! I could almost picturize me moving – the description was so real and true-to-life!
Aawesomeness!
Ha ha yes the weather is so wrong. They say it was cold two days ago and tonight I will be sleeping under a fan. As for the men, don’t get me started.
I’m glad you enjoyed the read Kartikay. 😀 I wish I had enjoyed the move so much. I feel rather, err, sad. But then it was for the better. Touche.
Ha ha yes the weather is so wrong. They say it was cold two days ago and tonight I will be sleeping under a fan. As for the men, don’t get me started.
I’m glad you enjoyed the read Kartikay. 😀 I wish I had enjoyed the move so much. I feel rather, err, sad. But then it was for the better. Touche.
Hey! I enjoy packing on the contrary. I love the feeling of sleeping in the mess, tired and exhausted when all packing is done.
The trouble you have with your things, I feel the same with my books.
Don’t want to leave the precious memories behind, but don’t know how to take them forward either. My solution “Blue Dart”.
Sleeping in the mess! Oh don’t remind me. I have to sleep in an un-dressed room with bags and baggage everywhere for a good 5 days. But yep, the sleeping-after-you’re-exhausted is good. Makes for sound dreams.
I don’t know how I will take my books either. They are too many and too heavy for me to tow. I will get Dad or someone to make a trip later. 😀
Well I used Blue Dart exclusively for my books. They weighed about 50kgs, you too can look into it, is not too costly either.
Sounds like a good option… thanks! Will look into it.
Loved the postponing part:)
🙂 Incidentally Raksha, it still is postponed. The packing that is.
Well, the no food problem is easily explained. During my three years in pune, my mom never visited. Dad was there just once, right in the beginning. Ergo no getting pestered by folks 😀
Ha ha now I know.
No khaana to waste = no waste. 😀
Ha ha lovely write up
Thank you 😀
i know that feeling…. i had four weeks to wrap up pune. a lot of time, yet barely enough.
don’t generalise about boys though. i kept a spotless clean room all the years of living on my own and did laundry regularly.
and no spoilt food in my room. ever. was always a hungry young man 😛
happy packing…. its hard to throw stuff away, ainnit?
Wow now that’s a paragon of virtue. 😛
Great about the food part though. I have argued with Mom so often – I won’t need all that food. I don’t get time toe eat it yada yada yada. But to no avail.
It really is hard. I cringe even when I am told to throw old slips of paper away. I wish I had more sections in the library.
Delhi Dreams, Desi Delights? another blog in the making? or you’re going to continue reminiscing Pune’s pulao? 😀
either ways, I think you’re gonna continue to delight with your posts.. 🙂
Leo @ I Rhyme Without Reason
That’s a wonderful name!
Well, I will be continuing this blog but with a new name. From Pune its muse will shift to dearest Delhi.
Thanks a lot Leo. I hope so too. 😀
so this url itself will continue? no change in that? I was about to click on subscribe when I saw the shift 😛 I tht it’d be a new blog itself 😀
glad u liked the name suggestion.. I donno much of Delhi food 😛 so dint go into a particular dish. Bengaluru is my area u see 😉 lol.
cheers. subscribing now.. 😀
Leo @ I Rhyme Without Reason
Yep, the URL will continue and so the subscriptions will remain. 🙂
Actually I have kind of grown fond of paneer and pulao and we get amazing P&P in Delhi too.
Aha, I have heard so much of Bengaluru. Maybe I will get a taste someday.
nice post
it happens
I guess it does indeed.
Whaaaat? No whats Paneer and Pulao without Pune!
Yep… that saddens me too.
We’ll now have Delhi style khaana on my blog.
Thats a lot of Paneer too. Works.
Dilli. Dhak-dhak.
Ha ha Dilli and dhak dhak go together. And you sure need cottage cheese to cheese things up in Delhi. 😛
that was such a well written post!
Thanks a lot magiceye! 😀
now now not all BOYS are the same , I make sure i change my jeans every 10 to 15 days not wait till a month and yeah the same for the shirt too.. 🙂 saare ek jaise nahin hote 🙂
I have promised myself I am not moving house anymore.. changed to a third house and its a EPIC BATTLE each time .. so no more
Where you going …..
Just do slowly each day a bit and it will soon be all done 🙂 You need any help if you promise to feed me the lovely indian food i can come to help 🙂 he he hehee
All the best
Oh Bikram, that was heartwarming. It’s great to know guys too have a small repeat-duration for their clothes. 😛
A third? Phew. I couldn’t agree more about the epic battle thing. But I see more moves for me in the future…
I am going back to Delhi. Yes, there are still some days left and I hope to get things done by the weekend. Your help would be much appreciated – about the food, um, does vada pau count? 😀
Any food will help.. thats all i do when i come to india eat eat and eat there are so many dishes to eat and so little days at home 🙂
Ha ha what a foodie you are. 😛 😛
Hi,
That was a lovely post. Really like your style, it’s so simple, yet very expressive.
You post made me remember the place we left behind when we shifted some five years back. Now, whenever I go back there, it still feels like home. But I believe it is always better to feel sad when leaving a place. Because that proves you’ve had a good time there. Would rather feel that than relief at being rid of the necessity of living there!
Best.
Well I guess we really don’t have much control over the sad/not part. Indeed, when you have had a good time living somewhere and have to leave it all behind, sadness creeps in tiptoed. Like your five-year-old move.
Ha ha, yes, for some people a move might be very cheery if they have treated their current residence as a compulsion. Sadly, not the case with me.
Glad you enjoyed reading Jyoti… thanks a lot and do keep dropping by! 😀
I know how difficult it can be to wind up all your belongings especially when you are moving away.
Good luck with all the packing you’ve got to do 😛
Enjoy packing 😀 😀 😀
Oh thank you. Good luck wishes are much needed now. 😀
I don’t know about the enjoying part though…
Emotional who you?-Yes. I always try not to miss any place I leave. Because if i do, then it means that I haven’t enjoyed it as much as I would have wanted to.
But only if things were so easy.
P.S: How do u manage to generate so many posts quickly? Are you on gatorade?
Ah, that’s a nice, simple way of putting it. I will agree too. There’s much more I want from Pune and I hope to come back soon.
Ha ha don’t tease me. It’s just the current avalanche of memories/experiences/farewells that’s responsible. 😀
ready to fly thats wonderful post 🙂
Yep, less than two weeks to go now…
thanks Geeta. 😀