Her moving sent me on a nostalgia trip on the shifting and transfers that I've had to do. This place I'm staying in now, is number 17 on the list of places that I've called home. Not bad for 26 yrs. Appa being in the Navy, was of course a major factor. But the funny thing is that, at least 40% of all the shifts, were purely due to my movements. The biggest of course, was the one where I had to haul my ass all the way to the US. The most memorable, was the one where we moved from Vizag to Cochin.
Vizag was one place where we spent the longest time - 3 yrs. Most of best childhood memories are drawn from there - huge gang of utterly crazy friends, mindless evenings cycling around Naval Park, learning to roller-skate, gossiping under the banyan, falling in hopelessly in love, and other such crazy childhood stuff. So obviously, I was quite disappointed when we actually had to move.
You could trust Appa and Amma to ensure that the packing was as organized as possible. Boxes were numbered and we knew what numbers mapped to what. Kitchen stuff was in numbers 5-7, the stereo, its huge speakers and the vinyl records in box 13. We even had the keys grouped together. I could tell which key opened which box simply by looking at it. One of the more exciting things about some of the boxes was that, Appa was able to get hold of a few discarded missile cases. I remember getting this huge thrill in thinking that my books were sitting the same boxes that until a couple of months ago, were carrying rocket-heads from Russia.
We decided to drive down all the way to Cochin. Seems impossible that we could have planned a trip without access to stuff like Google Maps and Weather.com, but it was a lot of fun poring over paper maps and tracing out the routes that we would take. We did it over 3 days. Vizag to Guntur; Guntur to Arakonam and the final leg from Arakonam to Cochin. This was in the peak of the Andhra summer and in some ways, was not exactly the smartest thing to do. How Appa and Amma drove through those 16oo odd kilometers, in a tiny Maruti 800 (without A/C mind you), packed to the brim and carrying two irritated kids in the back-seat is still a wonder. The Guntur to Arakonam stretch was horrible. It was searingly hot, no tree cover anywhere and no amount of water could quench our thirst. This is the Rice Bowl of Andhra Pradesh, and if we had the heart, all we had to do was look out the window and gaze upon fields and fields of lush green paddy, offering a stark contrast to the parched brown earth around it. But of course, the heat banished all such thoughts from our minds. The trees started making their presence felt closer to Arakonam and I don't think I'd ever been so happy for the shade. Nevertheless, all this gave the entire trip a totally adventurous air, and when we rolled into Cochin, the feeling of supreme satisfaction was hard to beat.
Our luggage had an even more eventual journey. All the trunks had been sent in a truck, it was supposed to be following the same route as we were, and we did in fact pass it a couple of times along the way. However, on reaching Cochin, there was no sign of the truck. We waited for 48 hrs plus and there was still no news. This was in the days before mobile phones, and we had no idea whether those truckers had just run away all our stuff. Such a situation would be inconceivable now. Appa then got on the hunt, and soon discovered that the truck had broken down in between, and of all things, the axle had broken! Anyway, things were transferred to another truck and for two bored boys, who were desperately waiting for their toys, it couldn't have come any sooner.
Similar performances were repeated every two years, so over time, moving houses wasn't really a big deal anymore. I have my parents to thank for having such a balanced attitude towards this. Sure, you were losing friends and moving into unfamiliar territory, but it would just take little patience and little willingness to adapt, and things would be all hunky-dory again. Nostalgia and sentimental attachment had their place but they were kept firmly in check.
So, all this thinking started with Cartoon moving out and it should be fitting that it should end with a quote from her. I wanted to find out how she liked her new place.
me: so how's the new place ?
Cartoon: still sinking in.
me: oh didnt know that you'd moved into the Titanic.
Cartoon: arghhhh!! *stabbing herself with a huge kitchen knife*
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