Marriage is one of the most difficult changes in life … especially for a girl.
I can go on and on about all the changes that it brings in terms of life-style, the home where you stay, the people whom you stay with, new relationships, the numerous restrictions and the host of other adjustments that one needs to make, but you already know about them. So let me skip that part
I got married to a consultant – his job could and would take him places. Some of these places would be his home for a year or two and I would get to go with him and stay with him in those foreign lands. Sounds interesting. Right?
NOT REALLY. NOT FOR ME.
I have never lived away from my family. Never lived alone.
And now I was looking at the prospect of staying in another city, another country, with a new person in my life (hubby) who would be out of home most part of the day leaving me alone in a new apartment.
I was SHIT SCARED. Really really scared. Did not know what I will do and how will I manage the loneliness.
Thankfully, the very first project he got was in Dubai-Sharjah. Several things good about this place (as mu hubby explained).
Its close by – just a 3 hour flight from Mumbai.
Its very Indian – 70% of the population out there is pretty much Indian (what he did not say was that most of them will be South Indian)
There is a prominent gold market in Dubai – which means Gujarati and Marwari crowd
Plenty of Indian restaurants and some pure veg restaurants too – food is not a problem.
He tried to make it easy for me but the deep-seated uneasiness would not leave me. I knew all these things were out there to comfort me but the loneliness inside the house was going to be overwhelming.
This was going to be the scariest change in my life.
The first few days were really really scary. Lonely. I wanted to just sleep off the days so that I don't spend time thinking endlessly.
Hubby would take me out in the evening, little strolls in the neighbourhood. We explored the nearby shops and stores, identifying where to find the basics and locating the nearby vegetarian restaurants.
Then the weekend arrived and we went out on tour-of-sorts of Dubai. Went to the Dubai mall, the Burj Khalifa and the continuous series of very very tall buildings of Sheikh Zyed Road and Jumeirah Beach Residence. I was overwhelmed (my hubby's term for me that day) and he said that he did that intentionally.
He told me that now that I had seen the 'largeness' of the place, everything that I see now will seem small in comparison and almost nothing will over-whelm me.
Wow. What an approach I thought. Scare a person so much that anything scary afterwards will seem like child's play thereafter.
BUT, it worked. It did happen the way he said. I got comfortable with this new place and city.
It was a very welcome change and the one year I spent changed my outlook towards life significantly. I began to appreciate things in a different way.
I began to look at my own apartment in a very different manner. It was now my home and I was solely responsible for it. During the apartment search, I was making decisions and giving my opinion on what the apartment should be like. I had never experienced that feeling, that rush before.
Recently, I came to know about the transformation https://housing.com/ is undergoing to gear themselves for the demands of today's consumer. The video about their new campaign 'Look Up' is pretty interesting …
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