the immigrants

“Good we are moving. This house is so small.”, said Vivaan. He must have picked it up from our conversations. “But I will miss my friends”, he quickly added.

For Vivaan, his friends are everything. Even when they are annoyed and tell him, “you are not my friend”, he will periodically poll them, “Am I your friend now?”. There is pain when he is out of the group. But there is no ego or insult. He is ready to go back in a heartbeat. 

Vivaan calls us ‘aai baba’ in Marathi. For his friends too, we are aai baba. They trust us, visit us, eat with us, play with us. I scold them, comfort them, or play childish games with them. Like Vivaan, I will miss his friends too.

The reasons for moving are clear in my head. Vivaan’s new school is far away from this place. Our current ground floor house provides little space and privacy. The sewage plant ruins my sleep. And two of the world’s most venomous snakes, the king cobra and the russel’s viper, keep making cameos in our campus.

But this is the home where we spent some of our best moments. Sanika aced her job interviews here. Vivaan learnt to ride his cycle here. He learnt to enjoy the swimming pool. He became comfortable with sticks, stones, leaves, cats, and dogs. He learnt English and Hindi. From being a toddler who hated dirt he became a kid who loves to spend time in the sand. It happened here.

And then there is the stuff in between. I will remember the late night work calls. I don’t want to. But I will. I will remember being burnt out and having to quit my job to take a break. I will remember the window where I sat for my therapy sessions. I will remember where I broke down and broke through. This too happened here.

Once the moving crew steps in tomorrow, it won’t be our home. We will have checked out. This will be the seventh time in ten years. Second for Vivaan in two years. If there is a prize, I want to submit our entry. We are the true immigrants - moving around in search of a better life. This time I hope we let our roots grow deeper and try to create a better life instead of searching for a new one.