Care package

For those of you who have had the pleasure of moving into a new home, you probably know the typical challenges you would face while settling into a new house. Since our move to India is not a permanent one, we did not ship furniture or transfer household goods (like linen, towels, kitchen utensils, cooking supplies etc.). Yet, we moved into our new place on Sunday and were up and running by Tuesday morning.

The secret? Mona's mom!

A few days before we moved in, five large bags and one suitcase arrived by courier from Mumbai. When we unpacked these on Sunday, an endless stream of supplies seemed to flow out of these bags - bedsheets, pillow cases, napkins and rags (all neatly washed and ironed) to kitchen utensils (including fine china) and kitchen supplies. If you are unfamiliar with an Indian kitchen, this is the most complicated part of the household to setup. Indians use about half dozen different types of flour and over three dozen different types of spices. And all of this is specially processed by hand using raw ingredients purchased from shops scattered all over town. Getting our kitchen fully operational would have easily taken over a month.

Mona's mom has surely labored over this for weeks (after returning from a trip to Australia with a broken wrist). She has thought of every little detail in putting together this stuff and has taken into account our special quirks and preferences regarding food. Her thoughtfulness and effort has made our transition into our new place smooth and thoroughly enjoyable.

I salute you, mom!