I'm going to let the cat out of the bag. This 'investment' I hinted at a few blog posts earlier. It is top of my mind now and most likely will be for a bit. I am moving into a new house shortly or so I hope. It's been—unbelievably!—almost 9 years since I have lived on the university campus. Most of it as a student but still... You folks who already have a very good idea about my feelings regarding change might have astutely guessed that I am more nervous/anxious than excited at the prospect of moving out. The very fact that I was plonked in this one location for this long (if you keep aside my eclectic international forays ;)) should suggest my love of rootedness. I was literally forced to take this long overdue step... though for a few years now I felt I needed to make it. Come to think of it, many of my movements have happened when I have been pushed in some way. I love my comfort zone and God knows that... that's why He takes matters into His own hands I think... hehe...

Well, it's the first time in all my life that I am going to actually live in a house that I have bought. It's a funny thing but I feel that as I have grown older, I have become less and less enamoured by the things I would have thought worth aspiring to when I was much younger. Now material possessions don't have as much of an aspirational value for me. I am inclined towards whatever makes me comfortable and peaceful nowadays. More possessions usually mean... more burden. With the new house, I am hoping a bit of temporary discomfort and disturbance will eventually lead the way to comfort and peace. However, I do not look forward to the next few months at all…

One big trouble is, as I said in my earlier post, unlike in India (I mean Mumbai) people seem to love to do everything by themselves over here. Every time I am asked if I am going to do the painting of the house myself, I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry? I mean, do they not know me at all? the very idea? I wouldn't know where to even start?! I don't have a concept of painting a wall, you know? That’s a specialist job in Mumbai. I wouldn’t do painting just like I wouldn’t wake up one day and drive a bus. It’s a skill in its own category is what I would have thought, but apparently not over here. Anybody could do it by the looks of it, the way anybody could take out the bin. A few days ago, I joined a colleague on a trip to a carpet place. We don’t do carpets in Mumbai either. I kind of liked the idea of going to such a place though. It felt a bit quaint, and I like quaint. My eyes glazed over when the carpet guy started talking square metres. I have no concept of square metres either :( He seemed to like explaining technical stuff and at one point he was explaining different kinds of carpet fibres with an analogy about him and his current wife, and him and his ex-wife. No kidding!