Whatever we do, we hope for happy endings and new beginnings. It was a sentiment my family and I shared when we moved house for the first time in decades, from the suburbs of Mumbai to the city side. The move, late last year, was inevitable but not unanticipated: our apartment block was going to be rebuilt.
We respond to most changes in the course of life with apprehension and excitement in more or less equal measure. Relocating to another home miles away from our comfort zone falls in that category. Will our new life be better than the one we left behind? Will we create sweet memories just as we had in our former home? Will our neighbours be friendly? What will the neighbourhood be like? Are there retail stores and supermarkets, and other essential services nearby? Wait, are dogs allowed?
Even though we may have all the answers, we will never really know—or feel reassured—until we move into our new digs and settle into our new life. Firsthand experience is always better than secondhand information. In time, we may find that moving house hasn’t been so unsettling as we thought, and that we are slowly warming to the change.
A place takes time to grow on us, like a new friendship, a workplace environment, or a song or film we appreciate gradually. It may feel strange at first. We may even miss where we came from. But over time, once we are past the initial resistance, we feel a sense of belonging—as if we’d always been there.
T.S. Eliot once said: “Home is where one starts from.” The British writer may have said those words with regard to his own home or in an entirely different context. But his line can be taken to mean that moving house is not merely changing addresses. It’s an opportunity for a fresh start, to accept change without being afraid, and to do things differently—all with a desire to raise our quality of life.
And so, when we relocate—to a home neither too big nor too small, but one we can call our own—we do so because of circumstances, and with the hope that we might continue to live in harmony and be as happy as families can be.
It took us a few days to settle into our alternate home. There were some anxious moments at first, but they were soon forgotten once we put everything in its place and resumed everyday life. Although we were familiar with our new neighbourhood, we explored the area both out of curiosity and to discover places where we could buy our daily necessities or go for walks.
In the end, moving house wasn’t as stressful as we thought it’d be—perhaps because it was less about leaving an old life and more about beginning a new journey. We were encouraged by what lay ahead.
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