I have always had a special bond with Delhi, even though more than half of my life was spent elsewhere (Bhubaneswar and Rourkela). I instantly fell in love with this city as soon as I set foot here for the first time, way back in 1997, when I had come over here for my intermediate studies and further. It was here that I had met the love of my life, Ananya, for the first time and it was here that I had got my first job. I have so many other fond memories associated with Delhi, it's like my second home-city. And so, until now I had always resisted any temptation to relocate to another city for whatever reason (big or small) - better job offers, respite from my frequent seasonal ailments due to Delhi's harsh summer and winter climate, more breathing space and cleaner air or something else. I had even managed to stall my transfer to Hyderabad two years back, only because I didn't want to leave Delhi. My wife, Ananya, too had tried many a times before to persuade me to relocate to a different place because I would frequently fall sick during the winters (and so also during the monsoons). But I would always laugh it off and managed to stay on in Delhi.
But this time I finally relented and we relocated to Bangalore a couple of weeks back. Because my son, Chintu, like me, would often fall sick during the winters. At first I had thought it to be normal but it started to become a norm for him to have fevers accompanied by severe coughs and throat infection almost every winter. He would often have difficulty in breathing too. Then when he was thoroughly diagnosed, our family doctor found out that Chintu had developed asthma. Though he prescribed Chintu some medicines but he advised us to relocate to a place with more even climate, because he feared Delhi's cold weather would make Chintu's asthma feel worse. Ananya once again suggested Bangalore for our next city and home and I couldn't have agreed more. As luck would have it, the Bangalore location of my company were looking for a project manager for a new project. So my application for the transfer was approved without much hassle.
But our woes were far from being over. It's never easy relocating from one city to another. We had lived for more than ten years in that house in Delhi and so had got a lot of stuff to move -- furniture, appliances, art and antiques and several other small and big articles. It would have been foolhardy to take them along to Bangalore, packing them up and transporting them through the movers and cargo delivering companies. So we decided to keep only those things that we really needed and after donating a few things to charity homes, we sold off the rest. When it comes to selling your stuff, and more so if you are in a hurry, there is probably no better place than
Quikr. Not only does one get good value for his things, but the entire selling procedure is so easy and convenient. Within three days, I sold off my bike, our furniture and appliances that we felt we didn't need to take along and the antiques too. Now we were almost ready to move out of Delhi to Bangalore.
Before finally shifting though, I came to Bangalore for two days and visited a few localities for our prospective house, enlisting the help of a property dealer and selected a good house for us in Koramangala. The payments and most of the paper works too were done. So we were now ready to shift to Bangalore. And so we did, to our new house.
Now it was up to my "Ghar ki Laxmi", my wife, Ananya, to transform our house into our home. And she did exactly that in four days flat! She didn't need my help either. And probably I couldn't have helped her much any way, because not only am I mostly stupid with my suggestions (as she says :D) but also because I was busy with my project work in office and often returned home late. But each day upon returning home, I would see something new added to our home. Then day before yesterday, when I returned back home from office, Ananya had got quite a few surprises for me in store. Before I could even realise, Ananya had got all things that we needed in our new home. I felt like some interior designer had done our decors -- our living room had got a trendy L-shaped leather sofa with a cushioned settee, an elegant looking tea-poy made up of teakwood and with a glass top, a big plasma TV, a stylish TV unit with a cup-board. Our bed-room now had a queen sized bed with two side tables too, a big 3 door wardrobe. Artistic paintings and wall hangings had now adorned the walls of our rooms. Our dining hall had now got a brand new dining table with matching chairs and the kitchen too had now got modular-styled shelves and a brand new refrigerator. We had also got a washing machine and a dish-washer. I was left dumbstruck, "how did you do all this, Ananya?".
"Ha, Quikr hai naa!", came her prompt reply. "Come, I have something more to show you," she said, as she took me towards her laptop. She typed in something and in a jiffy opened the
Bangalore Quikr page.
"I bought all of these stuffs from here, I only had to type in the article's name in the search box and with just a click, I was given so many options to choose. I only had to select a thing and contact its seller, fixed a time to meet him/her, made the payment and lo, the thing was ours, just like that!", she said. "I have also selected a bike for you, I was only waiting for your nod and then that too will be ours," she added.
I could only smile and feel proud of my wife and ever so thankful towards Quikr. Indeed, with Quikr, relocation and re-settling down in a new house had never been this easy.
