A Monster Named Moving

October 16, 2019 by
A Monster Named Moving
Dwarak Badrinath

 


You know it is lurking around the corner and will pounce on you anytime.
But you choose to stay in denial, and then soon enough the monster finds you.
Not, I am not talking about the White Walkers in Game of Thrones.

I am talking about the activity we undertake after some decision-making, known as moving to a new house. This activity is exciting, intimidating, tedious, exhausting, and unpredictable. The days of living in one city or one house are long gone unless you own that house and decide not to move jobs or compromise with taking up jobs in the vicinity. If nothing else works, then choose to commute for long hours. Avoiding moving to a new house is equivalent to chasing a unicorn. Change has become the way of life for most of us. A lot of us cannot be bound to one place. The reasons can be voluntary as well as involuntary. Whatever the reason may be, moving is a slow-moving beast. And taming this beast swallows up many of your weeks (sometimes months).

People brought up in a nomadic and minimalistic atmosphere tend to cope with this monster better than the ones whose roots have grown too deep inside and uprooted them seems implausible. You think you have figured it all out. You know the whens, wheres, and hows of the entire process until the D-day arrives. You end up feeling like a lost deer in the midst of a pack of wolves known as movers who have a razor-sharp focus. Their sole aim is to pack everything that comes in their way. Their weapons include a copious quantity of cardboard, bubble-wrap, paper, scissors, and adhesive tapes. You got to keep an eye on each one of them to ensure your belongings are all going in the right boxes. The surprisingly large number of boxes makes you feel like the most clueless King/Queen ever who has no idea how much their kingdom has expanded. You used to mock hoarders for their tendencies, and now you have become one.

Before you know it, your stuff is loaded in a truck, you see the emptied house for one last time, soak in all the good memories created there, and leave behind the unpleasant ones. The moment you step inside your new house, the wolf pack takes to charge all over again and unpacks whatever they had packed just a few hours ago with as much zest. In a matter of a couple of days, your new house undergoes metamorphosis. You arrange and rearrange until you find the most optimum system or when you simply give up because of exhaustion. The initial apprehensions and uncertainties start fading away. You get used to your new abode the way you got used to the previous one. It is not always a smooth sailing ride, but it reminds you that you are capable of change and the challenges that come with it. It reminds you to keep what matters and give away what is redundant. Most importantly, it humbly teaches you not to settle for something just because you have got comfortable with it. Nothing is supposed to be permanent in life, then why should your residence be any exception. So be wary of the monster named moving, it might be planning to knock on your door with a new address anytime.


A Monster Named Moving
Dwarak Badrinath October 16, 2019
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