Moving Experiences

Most of us have moved houses at least once, and probably more than once, during our lifetime. According to some surveys, moving is one of the most stressful things ranking up there with divorce and death in the family. Strangely, all the reasons mentioned for the stress related to the physical act of sorting things to keep/discard, packing, unpacking, etc. and the need to find a new home to rent or buy. 

Selling and buying houses can certainly be stressful but the really emotional part of moving has to do with leaving friends behind and the need to make new ones especially if you have lived in one place for a long time. When you are very young, even if you did not live somewhere for a long time, this can be trying. My family moved quite a few times when I was growing up as my father used to get transferred every two or three years. By the time I finished high school, I had moved seven times. And each time, I had to go through the adjustment period of being a new kid in class. I suppose this taught to me to be adaptable to new situations in life.

Even after I started working, I continued to move and by the time I settled in my present location, I had lived in a dozen different cities. As time went by, I acquired more things and moving meant more planning and was more challenging logistically. Sometimes a piece of furniture could not be moved through a flight of stairs. There was the time in Bombay when we had to hoist a steel cupboard over the balcony five stories high with rope. Quite a scary moment that was as the specialist hired for the task stood on the balcony wall that was just four inches wide. And he was not wearing a harness. He was cool as a cucumber through all this but we had our hearts in our throats. 

The longest distance I have moved is obviously from India to the US but this was actually quite simple as it did not call for moving a lot of things. Just pack the most essential items in a few suitcases, and you are done. On the other hand, moving from Mulund (Bombay) to nearby Thane seemed like crossing an international border. There was a checkpoint between metro Bombay and Thane that rivaled the crossing of the Berlin wall complete with concrete barriers. The trolls that managed the place were known to harass innocent movers with threats of octroi assessment on personal effects. This was supposed to be more difficult to negotiate than pulling a heavy cupboard up with rope.

My last major move was from Detroit to San Diego when I was transferred and this was relatively painless as the moving company took care of everything - packing, loading, and unloading. The move was still not without drama. The shipment was delayed as apparently there was a shortage of truck drivers leaving us in an empty apartment in San Diego for some three weeks. And then we had the task of unpacking everything when we realized that everything was wrapped in loads of paper. We ended with a mountain of packing paper when we were through! 

We are not the only species that move from place to place. While we adapt to the new surroundings, migratory birds move to seeking to stay in a warm climate and must build a nest each time. Some of them build very intricate and delicate structures. Beavers are known for their building skills while snails and tortoises have no trouble finding a new home wherever they go! Perhaps taking a cue from this, some people choose to live in their RVs which can be very comfortably furnished. They just need to find suitable places to park when they move from one town to another.

Then there are bees for whom relocation is an entirely different problem. I learned about this a few years back when I found a sudden swarm of bees on the pomegranate tree in the backyard. They appeared almost out of nowhere. I mean one day there was nothing on the tree and the next, a gathering of a few thousand bees. I got alarmed enough to call animal control. But before they could get to my house, the swarm had vanished as suddenly as it had appeared. 

It seems that the bees were 'swarming' or in the process of establishing a new colony. Swarming works like this. When a hive gets too crowded, the bees decide to split up and half the hive will relocate. The bees which leave temporarily gather at a location while scouts go in search of suitable spots to build a new hive. When they come back, they exchange notes through an intricate dance, the colony decides on the best spot and they go and build the hive there. Our backyard gets too much sun and hence is not very hospitable to construct something out of wax. All this, the technician from animal control was kind enough to explain to us. You can read more about swarming here.

We humans may have to do something like this as the earth is getting overcrowded and overheated. Will we be able to survive the new conditions? Some science fiction movies paint a rather grim picture where we have to abandon the planet but only a select few can leave to colonize a new one. Maybe like the bees we can 'swarm' some location in space and find ourselves a new planet!