Thursday-the start off

Pure existential dilemma ! A Librans worst nightmare come true. How do I go about it? Do I tell you what happened before we left ending the narrative where we dropped off to sleep yesterday and pretend today has not happened yet and I have posted this early morning as was my wont or do I bring you upto date at what happened since morning also when I did not get the chance to write anything worthwhile. As a good Kulkarni I take the biggest decisions on hunches and run around trying to see them through and as a good Libran I fret over the smallest things for hours. But then like every good lazy person I often take recourse to Virgin’s Branson’s thought process and say “screw it let me do it!!!” So I have decided I will only tell you yesterday’s story. Let us keep this on a day to day basis. Makes it more balanced and systematic- which you know all Librans love.

So it was that we started off to pack all the stuff that was lying on every vertical surface of the house. Sarita was given the task of getting them into a few cartons and into all the bags that we could find at home. My wife, even if I say so, is a magician- she is an expert at that slight eye movement which can make the most despondent of depressives into a King and if required reduce the mightiest of Kings to jelly-but that besides she has other magical skills too- and she must have used her invisible magical wand well, because by the time I came back from office at about 2-30pm ( for a 4-00pm leaving deadline mind you) all the food the tables were groaning under the weight of was neatly packed in duffel bags and the house seemed recognizable again. At the exact moment of my entry Aakanksha was throwing all her clothes all over her room looking for this or that and Sarita was collecting them and putting them in a bag- and both were muttering under their breaths- just a normal Kulkarni household scene – till she was sorted out too- which is when the fun began!!

I also insisted on packing at least the bag with medicines and the computer and camera peripherals and ended up keeping the wad of money that I had on the table and forgot all about it. Then everything got packed and just as I was making the final check in walked mangesh and Swati with the additional complication that Mangesh had still loads of office work left so they would only make symbolic start today and join us the next day. They said they would help in placing the cartons etc in the car to reduce the load on the next day and then suddenly everyone was throwing thing into the boot of the car. I kept sitting quietly on the sofa waiting to complete my quota of “good for nothing” stares. After all the bags were almost gone I realized I did not know where the wad of notes was. I must have shouted some thing because the very next moment everyone had abandoned the car fill up project and was searching for the wad. After hundreds of people rushed about all over the house it was discovered under the bananas and was handed over to me. I put it in the wallet put the wallet in my pouch and forgot where I put it. Thus it so transpired that after all the bags were loaded and I was making a final check that I realized I was one wallet less. Such things are normally met with an uproar in my house but this one was met with a total silence. A pin could have set off an avalanche by dropping in my drawing room before bedlam set in again. All the bags were dropped back on the floor opened searched for something whose shape and size only I and Sarita knew. Am I glad I remembered fifteen minutes later that they were in the bag I had been carrying all along. And to put it very very mildly the bags were loaded again. Had Jermome kumar Jerome not copyrighted this scene I could have written a book called “five people in a car”.

Anyways the coconut was broken, holy water sprinkled on everyone and later a symbolic start with others walking the first 2 kms with me and Aakanksha .We stopped by at the first hanuman temple we came across, just after we crossed the Yamuna river and not being Bharatiya but pure bred Indians waved to him and said “hey Dude we are like coming over Ok!! Watch out for us” you keep watching out too.!!!!!!