It has been four months since we made the ‘great move’ and I
feel I am a little qualified now to write about our experiences here so far.
My last blog post ended with a feeling of uncertainty as to
what our time here would be like, but after the passage of almost four months
here, I can confidently say – So far so good! It hasn’t been a super breezy
move, however not that difficult as well. When one is mentally prepared for the
difficulties that lie ahead, they don’t seem gigantic when you face them.
Let me begin with our first day here, when we entered the
apartment and it ended no sooner than it began but now after living here for
this period of time, we kind of have realized that this is just enough place
for the two of us. I am yet to understand though how people around here are
managing their entire family in just 1BHK or 1RK even. That astounds and
impresses me at the same time!
The first week at any new place can be overwhelming as you
do not know where to go for what! Here we were in for a beautiful surprise when
the agent (a young man of 24 bursting with youthful energy) who had helped us in
procuring this apartment invited us to his home for breakfast. Not used to this
kind of an invitation and also not feeling comfortable to impose, we politely
declined but he was insistent that he would be able to come along with us to
get internet service at the apartment, only if we come to pick him up. Once we
reached his home, he welcomed us so warmly into his home that we were
completely blown away! The family treated us to dosas and then this guy along
with his fiancé accompanied us to help get the internet connection in place.
Furthermore, once this work was over, he literally forced us
to go to his place again for lunch and himself made fish-fry for my husband.
What more could he have asked for! Never before had we witnessed such
hospitality in a strange land where the family knew nothing about us, could not
even speak our language (except the boy) yet so heartily welcomed us into their
fold. After lunch he took us around to familiarize us with the town, helped in
buying a bed and negotiating for it. Imagine spending an entire day with us
when it was absolutely no business of his! At the end of the day, he and his
fiancé told us to keep ourselves free for their forthcoming wedding. This was
pleasant as a wedding is an intimate affair, and one wouldn’t invite just
anybody to it. I for one immediately nudged my husband and felt a surge of
happy satisfaction as when I was packing my sarees, my husband had told me to
leave them behind as to where would I require them in Karjat. A wedding
invitation on the first day brought forth a triumphant smile on my face!
The first week was spent going back and forth to his college
and this home as setting up needed time and we needed to get a comfortable
sleep at the campus guest house, before another grueling day started.
The first week also gave us a sneak peek into the lovely
wildlife here. While driving, right in front of the car, we spotted the most
beautiful neon green snake we had ever seen. Then another day as we came to the
apartment, we saw thousands of bees, making a hive on our balcony. With immense
difficulty spanning several days, we were finally able to get them to move
away. Another one was spotting a big black cobra while parking our car in the
stilt of the building. This told us that we need to be on a constant lookout
for snakes.
Another humorous incident involving a snake was when we were
out for a walk and a certain area had tall, dried grass. My husband told me to
be very cautious and watch out for snakes, but I seemed to be unperturbed and
quite confident and was walking around in my own swag but soon that confidence
gave away when my husband spotted a long and thick brown snake crawling in the
bushes. He yelled ‘Snake’ and I screamed in response to his then …..Man!!!!!!!!
My shriek sounded loud and funny to my own ears as I too spotted it. Ab jaakar jeewan
mein wo muhawara charitaarth hua, “Pairo ke neeche se zameen khisak jaana.”
Somehow, we managed to get out of the place but now every sound in the grass
makes me think of an approaching snake.
The most beautiful snake I've ever seen
Next was to look for a house help who could wash clothes for the time till we bought a washing machine. The only two outlets here had all
semi-automatics and one or two top-loads, Amazon/ Flipkart (the only two that
deliver here) were taking at least 10 days to deliver a front load washing
machine. Anyways, the search seemed futile as getting domestic help here is not
easy and if you do find one, you’d realize that they seem to be assuming that
we are loaded and won’t mind throwing away whatever unreasonable salary they
quote. No laundromat was also available, no dry clean shop, no wall clock shop
and to my amazement even a tiny thing like ‘Catch table salt sprinkler’, wasn’t
available.
I couldn’t find a car cleaner for entire 3 months and became
pretty trained at cleaning and washing the car too. Finally got one a few days
ago and I heaved a sigh of relief. Thankfully my home cleaning and dishes are
sorted with my Robot cleaner and dishwasher else I would have been doing that
as well!
One would think the things would be inexpensive here, but you bet! We are paying a higher price for everything compared to what we were in Greater Noida. From veggies, fruits, presswala, to plumber, electrician and even our internet connection, everything comes at a premium.
My husband has always been an avid fan of IKEA stores and
ever since he knew we were moving to Karjat, he would keep telling me how we
would get all our furniture from there. So, IKEA Navi Mumbai store is a huge
one and for several weekends, it became our favourite haunt and its Swiss
Restaurant our date point! Getting furniture to fit our custom requirements
wasn’t easy enough. We needed a sofa cum bed as one bedroom had been converted
into study by hubby dear (as it is, it’s tiny). Whichever sofa cum bed we
liked, would be too large for the space but finally we found one which was just
the right size. We chose a complementing coffee table to go with the size and
were finally happy at being able to select these two. This happiness, however,
was short-lived as we were told that both were out of stock. After constant
online monitoring of its restocking, we were able to bring these home after more than
a month of shifting. Until then, our faithful carpet was working as our sitting
space. Hubby dear of course enjoyed his multiple trips to his Disneyland buying
several knickknacks. Till date he tells me, ‘Let’s go to IKEA’ and I’m like
NOOOOOOO as every trip makes our pockets lighter by several thousand!
You would think that buying probiotic ‘Yakult’ is easy. Well not for me. There is only one supermarket store here which stocks that, so I have to go there whenever I want it. Getting Octane 95 petrol isn’t easy as well. At times I have had to wait days for it to become available at the petrol pumps finally having to settle for regular petrol as the tank was almost empty. Petrol is costlier by Rs. 14/- per litre and due to the village roads with bumps at every 100-200 meters, the average of the car is ruinous. From driving around at the speed of 80kms/hr in Greater Noida, I have come down to 20kms/hr here. 😁
People around us are generally nice & helpful. My hello
hi people are the auto walas, the cycle wala, the phal wala with his wife (who
also gave me her home-made Gujiya on holi) the macchhi wali, the presswala’s
wife, the tailor, the ration wala and so on. These are all our neighbors.
I’m told that the village folk are only good until I get on
their wrong side. Then it’ll be a crowd against me. (I’m hoping such a day
never comes). One of my husband’s colleagues has been at the receiving end of
their ire when he accidently killed a hen that jumped in front of his car. A
huge crowd gathered and harassed him to no end. Eventually, he had to shell out
Rs. 5000/- as compensation to get out of the situation (and in his own words –
“Paise bhi gaye aur murgi bhi nahi mili”)
I think this writeup is long enough now and before my readers get bored of reading, I should sign off! Thankfully most of my readers are not Gen Z whose attention span is hardly a few seconds.😉
Will come back with more soon.
