AWAKE & DREAMING

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Packing

Anyone who has had to move would understand what I am going through. And I am talking about moving and packing up from the house entirely, knowing that you can never come back and collect stuff that you have left behind. Twice I have packed the majority of my belongings and moved to another city temporarily. The first time when I was studying in Bangalore at the age of 19, I took almost all of my stuff, except for some books and small items and brought them back home sometime later. Three years back, when I had joined Aysha Infotech, over the course of 8 months I had moved a lot of my stuff to my room in Calicut, only to be dissapointed that the company had to fold. So I packed up my belongings again to come back home and find a job in Cochin. Now I don't have to leave the district, just move from a suburb to the heart of the city.

So what do you take with you and what do you throw away (since you can't leave anything behind)? I immediately packed up my old tapes and some of my cds in two white cartons. Some of the cds are still lying on my table since I listen to them frequently. I had to dust of some of the tapes and decide which ones were worth saving and which ones were to be discarded. The later is a huge number and I was quite surprised to see that there are so many cassettes which I haven't listened to in years. The last three years or so I have relied on mp3 and my cds so the tapes have taken a back seat. Seeing some of the covers of great albums (like Hey Stoopid by Alice Cooper, PUMP by Aerosmith, 5'0 Clock Somewhere by Slash's Snakepit, Carved in Stone by Vince Neil etc etc) gave me some pleasure and I have saved them. Other fall into the "what-the-fuck-was-I-smoking" category (Nixons, Green Jello, Maxim????!!!, Slaughter etc). Many cannot be played at all and they went straight into the dump to be shredded to smithereens. Others, I have no interest in keeping with me, so they will be sold to the local carp market!

Books - well actually I had way many more books earlier but I remember selling a huge stack of them in 2001 because I saw a sign that said that they would pay good money for old novels and stuff. So I had carted away all the novels I had read atleast 5 to 10 times (I was a voracious reader, downing several cups of strong black coffee as I read a novel), so I have just a few. And I am keeping all of them, as there is nothing like reading a good novel to while away a lazy Sunday afternoon & evening, with the obligatory black coffee alongside me. So I want to keep the majority of the books that I have.

Clothes - the least of my problems for packing since I have so few :) and the major headache for me....since I have so few! I have to wash and make sure that none get tossed at the back. Stero system, mp3 player, matresses (we will be getting new beds), toileterries, sheets, pillows, utensils, kitchen appliances, a couple of cupboards, tables, chairs.... what else can I think of? I dunno. I suppose when the actualy packing starts I will know. You take so much for granted having lived here in this house from 1987 onwards, almost 2 decades. The packing is not something that I am looking forward to.



Song for the day - "This Used To Be Our Town" - JASON MCCOY