The seventh one..

After 41 km under the hot rays, calling up house owners and laying my eyes on every to-let banner I could, with no idea or sense of direction, I got an apartment to share with my two other friends. That was the biggest achievement for today. Instantly I felt something being lifted off my head. I felt light and relaxed. A new surrounding, a new hang-out area, a new space to fill up with my belongings and OFCOURSE…with my emotions and attachments that I am about to create……

In the last three years of my stay in the city, this is the seventh time I am gonna shift. Earlier ones had been equally challenging. They are summarized as below:

1.The first time I came to the city, I was into a corporate guest house, paid by my employer. That was the first time when I slept in an A/c room. When I got up, it felt great. But it was a limited privilege of ten days. I grouped with five other colleagues and started searching for an apartment. As the process was on, on the ninth day I got us a two-bedroom flat. We were three now with three others having opted out for reasons illogical. And due to some unavoidable circumstances I was supposed to have the first night stay alone. I did that. No fans in the rooms. No water supply. Long night and mosquitoes (there were no electrical plug points to attack them). And comes the morning, when I get to know that the other two with me have changed minds and we were still on our hunt for a flat.

2.I called up a friend of mine whose elder brother happened to stay in the city. I reasoned moving in with him till we three can finally get some place for us. It was 45 km away, a place which only an expanding city can claim as its own. My first day of journey to office included a thirty minute standing ovation in the bus for the favor god had done followed by a two hour standing ovation for the favor I did by staying alive on earth. Way back was even better, as sometimes I happened to pay the ovation, standing outside by the window, keeping an eye on the person seated inside by the window, holding my stuff as a favor. Thankfully it lasted seven days.

3.My third stay was finally with my two friends as was planned earlier but we happened to share the flat with an outsider working with a big MNC. Ego and pride were offered free. And for reasons unknown, he preferred not having any of our friends visit, even though for an hour. I had to take that. That was considered polite by my friends. And I happened to be with him in his room. And there he was, with all his gay mannerisms making me wonder at night, who I have ended up with. I distanced myself pretty good. But I have something which people call attitude or some prefer it as being arrogant. And hence, a day when I had fever and was at home, I wasn’t able to attend the doorbell. It was him and when I finally made it to the door; he came in and blasted me for my delay. And was more annoyed to see my friend who just came over to give me some company. I blasted him too. And I won. He gave me two days to vacate. I took six hours. With the rest of the time on his face, I shifted with a fever, to my friend’s (one who had visited me) hostel. For the curious ones who question about the friends I was staying there with, they deserted me.

4.My shift to the hostel was a short one as within two months the owner came up with another establishment. We were all supposed to fit in there. We had to. We did that. It was a new one, well constructed and ideally situated. I spent nine months staying there until it was enough for me to bear with unknown people making my life miserable with local dialects and unnatural habits and poor sanitation sense.

5.I asked a colleague of mine and they happened to be searching for a three bedroom apartment. Somehow, I completed their group of four to five and I was in. I moved into this awesome well maintained township. It was heaven staying here. With separate pools, tennis courts, badminton courts, table tennis boards and lush greenery, it felt like having a decent lifestyle for the first time. It was my longest ever stay at a place in the city…..1.8 years for a figure. And we grew from a bunch of five to nine to six and to three recently. Affording it was an issue now. So we decided to move out and hence my journey above.

Just to correct the numbers, it is certainly my seventh shift of place if you consider my movements from the guest house to the two bedroom flat where I happened to stay alone in the night. Nez…that’s all my dears. That is the story of my things and their habitual trips in the city. They love it…and somehow with time, I love them too as they continue to fill up the pages of my life with memoirs.