Uprooting ourselves and moving to a different city to live and thrive has been a pattern. When we moved to Auckland from Bangalore in 2015, the plan was to move out of Auckland in a few years. Of course we forgot all about that as we started rooting ourselves in all things Auckland had to offer. Khushi grew up to be a fine company and having time and space for our individual pursuits, we all thrived beyond what we could imagine when we moved to Auckland.
However, when the call to decide came knocking on our doors, we did not struggle or think too hard mostly because it aligned with our plan from 2015.
The move itself however was drastically different to the past ones. There is always a lot of tears .. the time I moved to the hostel from my parent's home. The time I moved back to my parent's house from my hostel...when I moved to Chennai to work and from there on, back to bangalore, from bangalore to wellington, wellington to Bangalore , bangalore to auckland. All the previous times I have known these were moves by choice and in pursuit of what I've deemed different and better for me and my family.
The excitement of the move was really low this time. Mostly because of the fears of covid looming large on our heads. We still took the plunge and we planned to get to the new city in 2 months. Exactly to the date, we did arrive ...to a locked down city, empty airport lounges and streets. Been a full week now and its hard to recollect the activity packed last 8 or so weeks.
A few things were different this time. We both had secured jobs before moving which helped us focus on doing everything else we wanted to do easier.
First things of order were figuring out school situation. This is somewhat ongoing though we largely know how it will pan out in the next few months. For now, she continues her school online till the end of the term. As we started sharing the news of our move, we realised the number of ppl we knew well enough to catch up over coffee/lunch/dinner. I felt happy and grateful each time someone offered to catch up in person. I practically ate out every single meal for about 2 weeks at one point. Work colleagues that have become friends as the years have progressed.. ppl that have helped me and those that I have helped. Friends that are family who made time every chance and let us soak up the warmth and comfort. This made it impossibly hard to leave them all in one hand and on the other it's the spring board of support we will use till we find our feet here. Teachers at both schools, Khushi's friends from primary, intermediate and all the tennis clubs. Her DKN( daily kids news) friends! She has had a great time since the end of June with a whole heap of playdates, sleepovers and impromptu catch ups. It was very important for us that she spent that time with her lifelines and said proper byes and made plans to continue to be in touch however she desired.
The next was to decide what we do with our things... Quotes from shipping companies started coming through and none of them were able to give us a fair indication of when the container would arrive in Australia. Most said roughly 8-10 weeks but with covid raging, it could be double that too. After giving it some thought, we decided not to take any furniture/car/large items. We'd need them almost immediately on arrival for comfort and even a couple of weeks without things like a couch or bed would make life difficult. Again prioritizing comfort over everything else, we started selling our things on trademe. All of this was early days and the things we rarely used.
We gave away a lot of things to the Salvation army. Quality clothes, small furniture, mattresses, Kitchen, bathroomware. Anything we had in excess and could shred basically.
It felt very satisfying -the sorting and giving away process. I also did a lot of pay it forward for slightly larger items that could not be transported easily to the charities.
This meant a constant barrage of ppl coming to the house and picking up items. Facebook marketplace was a revelation. Most things in the house were in great condition and ppl who picked them up really seemed happy.
So we had a plan for things we did not want to take with us. Sell, donate and whatever remains call and arrange for removal truck to pick up in the last week.
Next was how do we take what we want given shipping was going to be impractical time wise for us. Extra bags on the flight with us and unaccompanied air cargo it was.
After what felt like days of iterating through and making calls, looking up online and gathering info as we went, we learnt a whole lot about air cargo and how it works.
We decided to DIY packing, dropping off, clearing customs and picking up at our destination. Freight forwarders either refused international cargo or asked us to pay 10 times the price due to very low volumes these days. We started packing things we wanted to bring with us to Australia. Buying the cartons, bubble wraps , tapes was all a detailed time consuming activity.450 kgs in 20 odd boxes.. it was all very exhilirating. We packed the boxes- labelled and started organising, cataloguing the best we could. Sold one car a week before and in the last week leading up to our flight, it started to feel real. We had friends from Wellington come over to say byes..get togethers filled with laughter, food, photos and gifts. Khushi and I bought and packed gifts for the closest of our friends and gave it to them with hand written cards. My social circle was the biggest and strongest it's ever been, its also been a source of strength and support for me. Found tenants for the house, tidied up every nook and corner, organised bank accounts, did 1000 little things. This has by far got to be the most organised and planned move we have made. I was so proud that we made it possible to go get the trophy from Indian high commision for Khushi for winning a Yoga competition, a few hours before our flight. It was all perfect. I knew where to find the things I needed for travel, immediately before and after too...Up until we parked the car to pick K up from dinner at Saravana Bhavan. It was for 15 min that we parked a friend's car.
When we came back, the window of the backseat was shattered - we dint even realise it was broken into for a couple of minutes. Khushi's bag with her school laptop, cards and notes from her friends was gone. My handbag - the perfectly packed with everything to find including a water bottle for the morning flight was gone. I blocked my credit cards on the phone immediately but had lost a few hunderd dollars. I had a bundle of cash, my cosmetics, key documents and copies of everything needed for travel - a really big handbag - was gone. It was unbelievable and I completely lost it. We'd parked the car - a secure paid carpark we parked in almost once a week, given how frequently we went to SVB. We started walking up the street and Prash for some reason turned around and ran back to the car and fetched his passport pouch. I kept making fun of him sayign he's pararnoid of travel after 2 years !
We had friends help us out that night and drop us off to the airport the following morning. Landing in an near empty airport in Melbourne, we made our way to the airbnb in Boxhill in a big truck.
The first few days in the townhouse was spent on calls to Insurance company, Driver's license changes, police follow up in NZ etc.
Depressing - is the word that comes to my mind. We started working a couple of days later and managed to shop for everything including a new car and a rental home all online. A one of a kind experience and a story may be Khushi will remember to recollect later in life.
Thus we started a life in Melbourne - one of the popular iconic cities of the world.
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