Episode 381 : 560093

I had a simple objective when I moved to Bangalore in 2006: to find accommodation within a 5-kilometre radius of the workplace.

So I found one a few kilometres south of the office. But I was also aware that there were plans to consolidate all offices into a single complex on the eastern edge of the city and that I would have to move soon.

A year later, I moved to an apartment and within 5 kilometres of the new workplace. Barring a couple of months when I shifted before the office and had to commute 11 kilometres to go to work. But it was the days before Bangalore traffic got worse, and commuting to office even in peak hours took less than 45 minutes...

That was in 2007.

In 2009, I moved to another apartment in the same block, and stayed there for the next 6 years!

But each time I moved to a new place, I made sure it was within 5 kilometres of the workplace. And in a place like Bangalore, each kilometre has the ability to add anywhere between 5 and 50 minutes of commutingtime.

Then the office moved closer to home, and for the first time the home and office addresses used the same pincode. It was embarrassing to admit where I lived when everyone else was complaining that it took them so long to reach the office.

It has been 3 years of being in a quiet neighbourhood where one can wake up to chirping birds and wonder whether it would be a good idea to work out of home! Time flew so fast, that it feels like yesterday we packed up our stuff and moved out of an apartment block that I moved into the previous decade.

Living on rent has its disadvantages and after a few years the rent begins to look ridiculously high. Then there are maintenance charges, even if you are living in an apartment called Paradise. I am going to miss marking the maintenance payments as “For Paradise Maintenance”...

‘You are moving again?’ a colleague asked. I nodded. ‘Where to?’ he asked.

‘To a part of the city where everything is just a few kilometres away’.

I bent the 5-kilometre rule for this new place, but only just.