Building a nest

It is now close to six months since we moved back to India and we have now finally been able to get our own accommodation on the IITB campus! Fortunately we can set up the new place while continuing to live with my parents - which has taken the pressure off from us and has actually made this a fun activity.

Our new house is a one bedroom flat in the Staff Hostel. I like the place because it has a hostel-like ambiance complete with a mess, tennis-courts, badminton court and kids play area. It is next to the IIT gymkhana grounds which is a very lively area. But the best part is that our new flat sits two floors above Kabir's playschool! I can actually see him playing in his school from our new place :-).

Last few days have involved more shopping than I have ever done in my life. Our first round of purchases included a cooking stove and a water purifier and getting in line for a cooking gas cylinder (which takes about 10 days!). Today we got our refrigerator, microwave, washing machine, water heater and air conditioner delivered. In the next few days we will have representatives come in to install and give demos for each of these appliances (yes even for the microwave!). Tomorrow we also plan to close the deal on our new car. And we haven't even started on the furniture yet!

We also started unpacking some of our boxes today and it brought that bitter-sweet feeling again. Every time I open a box, I start to remember exactly when I had packed it and the conversations, thoughts and people connected to that moment. Even though we shipped more than 100 boxes, I'm amazed how well I remember each and every detail about what was packed in each of them and when/how I had packed them.

I am excited and looking forward to starting our new life in the new year. I hope it will be filled with happiness, peace and exciting new adventures.