Having stayed in the same house for fifteen years, I had my first experience of this dreaded activity just after my SSC exams when we decided to change our residence from the quiet neighbourhood in Matunga to the busy and industrial suburb of Chembur. But we weren’t vacating our old home and so the process went off quite smoothly.
My next date with ‘Shifting’ was to follow within a year when my grandparent’s apartment was taken up for redevelopment. Fortunately, as I was preparing for JEE, I was the golden-eyed boy and was exempted from my responsibilities.
But this time when my grandparents were returning back to their newly constructed swanky tower, there were going to be no excuses. I had gone picnicking with my friends after my semester was over and my father had purposefully arranged the shifting date to coincide with my return to the town. And with my sister being in final year MBBS I was definitely the scapegoat. This surely was going to test my patience and ability to see the lighter side of things.
As you get older you tend to resist change. At least this was what I experienced. With the May heat really troubling her, my grandmother (aaji) would get frustrated on frivolous matters and it would need my dad’s intervention to calm her down. Incidentally, I discovered quite a few interesting things while going about my latest assignment.
I realized that we had innumerable utensils in our house carefully preserved to encounter the ultimate eventuality of a hundred relatives storming in to give us a warm surprise. The fact that there was not enough space in the house for so many human beings to even stand, forget having food, is a different matter altogether. But analyzing this matter in more depth lead me to the realization that my aaji was actually a great visionary! With iron ore deposits around the world diminishing and with the likelihood that stainless steel prices would escalate in the near future she had thoughtfully made arrangements for her future generations.
Then came the woolens. While packing all the blankets and shawls in the cartons I happened to look out of the window and mistook the dog for a polar bear and the coconut palms for pine trees. But again there was futuristic thinking behind this accumulation. What if the sudden movement of the earth’s plates changes Mumbai’s altitude so drastically that we start experiencing snowfall and thunderstorms or what if the world is struck by a fifth ice age? We had to be prepared, didn’t we?
After that, while emptying one of the cupboards we came across so many crockery sets that if I put them all on sale, I would gather enough wealth to make sure that I would never require monetary assistance from my parents to satisfy any of my needs. But I will have to accept most of the blame for this addition of glassware to our already overstuffed home. The authorities of all the basketball clubs in Mumbai had probably started a co-operative business venture because there was a period when the finalists of all tournaments in Mumbai were awarded glassware. So in about 3 years I had received almost a dozen sets of glass bowls and cups. Finally, fed up of this, I hung up my boots!
As if this wasn’t enough, one day, my grandfather (ajoba) pulled out so many share certificates and annual reports from his closet that would put even Babasaheb Ambedkar to shame. But I have no qualms with him because that’s one of his few passions and he otherwise leads a very simple life with frugal requirements. And also his perseverance and methodical approach in these matters have been the key to our family’s financial progress over the last two generations.
Fortunately, my mom and I were lent a helping hand in all this by my dad and he is quite an expert at getting rid of unwanted goods. Although he would never accept it, in his hurry to clear the mess in the house, he has put my mom in trouble a couple of times by throwing away some important things. I hope he doesn’t read this article. Otherwise I could be the next one to be the victim of his skills.
This reminds me of an anecdote related to this subject. A few years ago we had added a couple of new wardrobes to our crowded house and my ajoba was proudly showing off the new additions to my dad’s friend. He politely appreciated whatever he was shown but later queried, “Now, where are you going to stay?”
After having gone through all this I would any day buy ‘studying for exams’ at the cost of being involved in this agonizing and torturous activity of ‘Shifting’
