28th August 2014
The last couple of months once Vidya and Anirud left Kuwait for good I was busy in finalizing the winding up activities. While we preferred to sell the flat with all household items, it hit a roadblock with the house owner not accepting it. I guess the “Harris” (Building-keeper) as they are called, who manages the building on behalf of the owner, played some dirty tricks in this regard. This was after the fact that we found a suitable buyer who was willing to pay a premium to get the house with the stuff. It was quite a setback for us as we had recently painted the house and also decorated it with new furniture and other accessories. I called him multiple no. of times but this guy did not budge at all to my requests. This owner was trying to usurp it for himself to keep his “keep” as the house was well maintained. To top it he quoted some ridiculous price for the items I had bought in the last one year.If we had to sell the items individually it would fetch a very low price and we were not comfortable and willing to part for such ludicrous bargains. I was really busy trying on the one side to sell our stuff and on the other side to buy new stuff for our house in Chennai. It was juggling everything at the same time.
Somehow, for us everything seemed to take quite a lot of time and iterations for each activity to be completed. Perhaps, it happens with others as well but when it comes to you, it puts you in a state of stress and anxiety until it’s over. Though, eventually, it went well, it created a lot of anxiety for me in the absence of Vidya to support me especially on home related activities. So, I had my share of moments from shifting the last day of my stay in the house to selling my car and clearing, packing and sending the stuff. Maybe, this is what life is all about.
While friends were willing to help out in whichever way they can, I had to do all the packing except for the big furniture and electronic items. And so for two days packing was done and by 10 PM on Thursday night all the items were loaded in the container. I decided against sharing the goods in a common container and booked a separate 20 feet container that would include only our stuff. There is always a possibility of your goods getting damaged or pilfered in transshipment or movement of goods from one container to another in transit ports. While it is all insured, doing the claim, assessment, follow up and getting the refund is all a hassle, best avoided.
To fill the gap and to meet the India requirements, I had to buy some more additional stuff. Imagine, when a guy has to do shopping on behalf of his spouse (who is extremely patient and particular about her wants when it comes to shopping) who is an impulsive buyer. I invariably look up a certain item in the net, look for its specifications and if I like the brand and its features, I stick to it. I don’t look for alternatives even if it does exist. I just go, fix the deal and close it then and there. Alternatively, here is my spouse, who has to literally scan through every single item available in that category and also look for the same kind in different shops to decide whether she wants to buy or not. In many instances, it may not even fructify after hours and hours of search and validation. Do you find it frustrating or funny? Now, here I have to go to various shops, look for alternatives, send the photos via whats-app and get the approval nod before I cut the check. End of the day, it’s a household item and the homemaker makes the decision not the purse holder because she holds the strings to the purse. Who says men cannot do multitasking?
When you are at wits end, you can turn the whole world upside down. I was not pushed to that extent, thankfully, but, definitely, I become fretful until everything is completed as per plan. And I am generally quite meticulous about it as I don’t like surprises. I always plan things ahead of time, do a checklist of various things I need to do, clear it one by one as per sequence, time, how, where and what. If something, crops up in between unannounced, I get terribly annoyed. So you can wonder, how much exasperated I was until everything came to a pass. In the end, the container was choked to death. And yes, I heaved a temporary sigh of relief…thinking about the clearance in Chennai, loading, unloading and fixing everything in the house all over again. Seriously, it’s a massive task to relocate from one place to another and you can imagine the number of things one has to compare while moving from one country to another
Beautiful Life 