Home #1

My first home away from home was a room about 15 x 10 feet. I was known as a "Paying Guest". That term has always baffled me. You can't stay for free, and you aren't treated as a guest either. An old spinster owned the flat, and I had one room. The other room was given out to a girl who worked with All India Radio. I hardly saw her- and that was good.

I remember moving my suitcase up the day we arrived from Goa- my Mom traveled with me- and hauling three boxes up two flights of stairs- those contained my beloved computer, monitor and assorted accessories and books.

When they were all dumped in the center of the room- there was no more room in the room! I looked around in dismay- how was I supposed to fit in there?
And my Mom left that very day because she needed to get back home to my siblings, whose exams were on.
I remember putting her in the bus, trying hard to look cheerful, and then returning to my new "home".
And I cried all night. The feeling was like no other I'd experienced before. Utter despair and loneliness.

The next day was Sunday. It was such a task to unpack my computer. Maneuvering boxes in that small space. Getting them out of the way. Assembling it and praying that it would work and hadn't been damaged in transit.
Then unpacking the rest of my stuff. And re-packing because there was no place to put all of it.
Finally, my room looked almost tidy.

My landlady was a different story altogether. She was a cranky and moody old woman. And extremely miserly. She was forever complaining about something or the other. I'd come home late from work, and she'd accost me in the living room, and talk for hours. And I'd be standing there with my bag, and making sympathetic noises because there was no polite way to escape.
She was rather well off. But she wanted "extra income", so she gave out both her rooms and stayed in the living room! Slept on the sofa. Ate on the sofa. Watched TV on the sofa. That sofa was her life. She didn't want to live more comfortably in a room in her own flat, because "one can always do with a little more money". Well, she sure wasn't doing anything with the "little" money that she was earning...