THE YELLOW WALL

 

Earlier last month after going through a terrible tragedy in the family, barely had we started coming to terms with it,  when we landed back, awaiting us was another shock on our entrance door which some of the expats like us would have gone through "A Premise Eviction Court Order" from the landlord. 

Reason: They decided to sell an entire building off!!! 

 

Flashback: After shifting 3 apartments in a span of 3 years (2008-2011) we had enough of packing and unpacking stuff with 2 small kids. Finally when on the 4th house hunting spree in 2012, we checked all the familiar places but either due to the rent or the size of the rooms we couldn’t get what we wanted. Finally we hear about our current place which we never intended to go in for,  as we had not heard about this place during our 3 years of residence here. As usual for any human mind resisting change when moved from their comfort zone, I was against the idea. After viewing couple of apartments, the conversation goes like this:

 

Hubby: Frankly speaking we did not like any of these because the rooms are too small for our wardrobes and beds to fit in.

 

Me: Can you show any other apartment which is decently big??

 

Real Estate Broker: I have shown you most of the vacant apartments in this area

 

Hubby: Do you know about this place  that they’re talking about in the newspaper??? They say its a new building and they have open house.

 

Broker: Well,  I don't deal in that area, but 1 thing I can assure you. (Hindi;- "aap ek baar jaakar dekhiye. Wahaan to duniya hai"). You will like the place!!

 

Hubby thanks the broker and we move towards our car still the thought of moving to "donno where" and "godaam (godown)" and all sorts of adjectives drooling on my mind. 

I slowly hint my dislike for the idea but hubby says: " we will simply have a look and if we don't like it we won't move that side"

 

We reach the venue. Outwardly lookwise it was not all that great. We enquired about the open house. The person showed us couple of apartments. It had huge, spacious rooms with an open kitchen and an enormously long balcony. We immediately liked the place. The entire building was empty and we could choose any apartment we wanted. Even though a 3 BHK was in our budget, we decided that we would go in for a 2 BHK as we are only 4 of us and parents visit us only once or twice during the year. Hubby said "lets explore this area" and we step out of the building into the common area. And lo! What I see is a lot of greenery which we were longing for in the last 3 years. For all the apartments we had lived earlier it was like stepping out of the building and on the road, without any play area for the kids. Now I see a huge football ground, a jogger's track, a  swimming pool, a gym. When we went further down the lane, a clock tower,a branded department store and a autodrome and kartodrome....... In short a small town in itself. It indeed was "duniya". Slowly it started becoming our dream home and we decided if everything goes well we would not move out of this place as long as we are here and that year after year we would only renew our tenancy contract. 

 

The following year I felt the walls were quite monotonous and so got my main entrance wall and one of my bedroom walls painted chrome yellow. Just loved the outcome.

 

"I just love you my YELLOW WALL"

 

Since I am a WARLIOHOLIC (crazy about the WARLI art, which is a tribal art form of Maharashtra), most of the home decor done by me has got a WARLI touch to it and hence it was but obvious the yellow walls looked incomplete without a warli touch to it. And so I started of with painting tiny warli motifs on the wall. A continuous one day job with getting up in between only to feed the kids. Thank god the kids were having their Eid holidays!! 

 

The black on the base yellow looked stunning!! And since it was the main entrance wall , I wanted it to be the focal point. Still there was something missing. How about adding a hint of light to the wall and what could be better than mirrors. Thats when I was reminded of a crafty purchase in India, tiny mirror pieces. I immediately opened out my "junk box"(friends call it teasingly). They say “all junk could find a place in your home”, since I love to recycle broken stuff and do something creative with it. I found a packet or 2 of different sized mirrors. I immediately glued them on to the wall and voilà it looked lovely. Kids just loved it . My older one said it was amazing. Couldn't wait for the day to end to show it to hubby, my biggest critic. He just loved the wall too! 

 

Since I am a recycloholic as well, had saved a few broken pcs of a dining chair from the old apartment time. Immediately made a small wall shelf out of it to keep small curios. How good would it be without warli on it. So painted the motifs on it as well. It looked nice but still there was something missing to it and I felt there was lot of assymmetric empty spaces.  

 

For some time now I have had an affinity towards brass handicrafts and traditional curios and every trip back home meant some brass shopping! So this time I wanted to pick up some traditional bells. A leading metalware store quoted an exorbitant price for a brass bell with chain. It was just then my eyes fell on a basket full of loose bells of different sizes in a corner. I immediately asked the price and it was 1/10- 1/6 the price of the bell. Picked up couple of them. The salesperson at the store said that they don't sell the chain seperately and that I would have to buy it as a big lot. 

 

Since my in-laws are supportive of my art and craft, my mom- in- law suggested that I check at a small store close to our house back home to which I agreed and to my surprise I found some more of them there and the sales guy agreed to sell even the chain. Was tooo thrilled at my purchase and couldn't wait to reach back home.

 

Back home I was yet to figure out how and where to use those bells. After quite a lot of pondering, I arrived at the idea of hanging them under the shelf. Again the outcome was amazing!!

 

 

Can't explain how much we are in love you our YELLOW WALL. Our day begins and ends with a look at you and everytime we pass by you we cannot stop admiring you!!

But the thought of having to vacate leaves us feeling terrible.  The mirrors adorning her would be plucked out mercilessly and sanded. Our lovely YELLOW WALL would be stripped of her paint!!!

 

Similarly each and every corner has a story to tell. 

 

It not just a house. It was our home!!

This is a reality and as expats living in this part of the world, the thought of vacating is always dormant in our minds and surfaces towards the end of each contract period. I am sure most of other expat readers would agree with me and would be feeling the same.

 

How we could tell you our YELLOW WALL how much we love you and we wish we could take you along!!!