Moving New House 2006: In God, We Trust Part 1

(Don’t worry – this has nothing to do with Merdeka or the Budget 2007 but a major house shifting process)

The preparations for my new house are well underway.

The contractor for the renovation of the house has been picked and the price has been agreed. It is nothing major though – I will not be breaking any walls for the house renovations. Just a simple fixing of the kitchen cabinet and the grilles would do under Phase 1.

The tiling of the house porchway and minor extension of the kitchen is coming under so-called Phase 2 but I have not decided when to start as it all depends on how much I will have in my pockets after moving into the new house.

With this minor headache well out of the way, I turned to the “other business” pertaining to my shifting to the new house – consulting an Indian astrologer on the right time and date for prayers & shifting. For we Indians, as some of you may have experienced, that can be as stressful as picking the contractor for the renovations.

My original plan was to move out to the new house BEFORE the week before Deepavali. That means some time on or before 14^th October – just nice as I have about one and half month to work on the renovations and other preparations. I just wanted to know the right time and the date. So, we went to Klang and met with a “consultant” that someone had recommended.

Did I say consultant and not astrologer? Ya, things have changed (read further). We were ushered into a small room where we met this guy who was smartly dressed (with a necktie) and a computer by his side. We chatted on what we wanted to do and passed to him our birth details. He keyed in something into the computer which took a fraction of seconds to process.

He looked at the screen and then at us and said that moving in October will not be possible. It is not a good month. After several more clicks on his mouse, he said that there are 2 dates that we can use for prayers – 10^th September (which was like 10 days from now) or 1^st November (which was about 2 months and past the Deepavali celebrations). After the prayers, we can move in anytime.

We could not afford the 1^st November date – it was too long and it means we are going to celebrate Deepavali in the old house. We had to take 10^th September date for the prayers and then move in on the 14^th October as earlier planned.

There was a problem with this date, however – time was short to prepare and because it was a good date, we are going to have a major problem looking for a priest to do the prayers at the new house. Even the consultant had his doubts as to whether we would find a priest at this very short notice and at a date where it supposes to be a “peak month” for prayers. He strongly suggested us to take up the 1^st November date.

It was late in the evening by the time we came back from Klang. On the way back, we made a quick list of the priest that we wanted to engage starting with Plan A, Plan B, Plan C and so on. My mom tried to call a senior priest who she knows very well (he was our Plan A by the way) but he had left the house and had gone to the temple.

Looks like the luck was not on our side but we decided to meet the priest on the same night no matter what is the cost (or time). So, after a quick shower, we packed up and drove up some 45 minutes to reach the temple.

Luckily for us, there were fewer people at the temple that time and we noticed that the priest was not busy. We explained our intention and the priest said we can talk on the details after we have prayed. Whilst we prayed, the priest prepared some food for us (which was good because we had not taken our dinner because of the rush).

When we were done, we sat down with him on the details and in between chit chatted on other issues (on temple and mentality of Indians these days). When he heard the date – 10^th September, immediately he remarked that someone had engaged him for prayers. Damn, we were screwed! We were thinking of Plan B when he re-checked his diary and asked again what time we were having the prayers.

There was glimpse of hope…

It was a stroke of luck; apparently the time of prayers was different although it was on the same day. Ours was in the early morning whilst the other engagement was 3 – 4 hours later. So, we were able to engage him on that day for the prayers. We were lucky because according to the priest, the other prayer engagement had the same time as ours but they changed it at the last minute.

We were thanking the Al-Mighty as we were driving out from the temple courtyard with the priest’s commitment firmly in our hands. It turned out to be well but we will be very busy for the whole of next week to get ready for the prayers. We suppose to have a small breakfast for family and friends after the prayers so the time to prepare is pretty tight.

But in God, we trust to get the things done and well.