Sale ! Sale ! Sale !

May 13, 2013 . So, the pictures were clicked , celebrations were over and now is the time for Mins to wind up .. pack up and clean up and be all set for the loonngg vacations and the next milestone - her job - post B-school !

But - moving out is not easy ! For the first time I felt , setting up a house is so simple (you pay and get stuff ast your discretion) , while dismantling the house is a roller-coaster experience of both unpredictable effort that one puts in as well as the emotions that one has to let go - while doing away with each and every thing - that you once bought for a purpose !

If we were to move locally in India, we would have used some movers and packers services and packed everything and sent home - there were ways of retaining stuff - at least for attachment value. But here - no chance ! You sell it, or throw it - it needs to be discarded in a predefined disciplined manner. You dont even have a choice to leave stuff with the land lord - thinking he may be happy - that his non furnished house - would become furnished and may fetch him higher rent - NO OPTION like that exists.

So, the first task was - to make people aware about the MOVING OUT sale - and Mins clicked pics of her home stuff - and put them on selling forums. The challenge at this time of the year was - the most common - demand supply challenge of economics. So many students moving out - while the new ones would come only in August/ September - hence the clear gap ! As one of my uncles suggested - this is a great business opportunity for who-soever wants to take it - in this city of Universities / academics - where students keep coming , buying stuff , selling stuff and moving out ! Think - its a good thought ! In India - I thought - if such an opportunity would hv existed - it would hv already been running as a full fledged business...

Anyways, so some people started calling for stuff and of course offered way lesser price that what was quoted by Mins. After rounds of negotiations and option finding - Mins gave away most of her stuff at throw away prices. The idea being - at least some one would come home , and pick stuff and help get rid of it for a few bucks. It was better than calling people for help and then finding a convenience center   to throw stuff and pay for disposal ! Stuff that Mins managed to sell in order of importance / price of selling was - her CAR (complex process - as people would ask technical questions , needed the TITLE of car - which Mins had misplaced - and there was a reported accident on her car + ac of car wasn't working -- OOPS - ) hats off to Mins for still managing to sell it - by figuring out all legalities / paper work in this alien country. What we realized was , that there was a system in place for everything and there was no ambiguity in the PROCESS , and so , was easy to follow and complete. Another thing was the NUMBER plate.

While in India - the number plate is the identity of the car, here the number plate was identity of ownership and changed with the owner. So, you need to remove ur number plate and the new owner will put his own with changed credentials. The number plate - would have the city name and a number and for North Carolina - it said First in Flight , for Alabama - it said Sweet home alabama - it was kind of - promoting the city with its one popular story may be. Like the First plane in US took off from NC , hence all number plates from NC read FIRST IN FLIGHT.  Saw many more kinds of number plates in the DMV (Durham department of motor vehicles) office -which were non templatised - unlike the otherwise TEMPLATE / process oriented US.

For the first time I saw JUGAAD in USA - we were supposed to take the number plate off the car and we did not have a screw driver. Then some one suggested - use QUARTER (25 paise equivalent) coin to unscrew the plate from the car.

The car sale was followed by sale of stuff like bed box mattress , vacuum cleaner , book shelf , side table, chairs and lamp shade. While rest of the stuff, we took down - the two floors, the mattress was taken by one guy with HUGE BUILT and African ethnicity. He very conveniently (or due to no choice) - and tied the mattress and box on the top of his car - with a rope - single handedly ! 

With this - I got an overall experience of the life in US (beyond a tourist) and realized this place indeed makes "EACH ONE on his OWN" - with no support - paid or unpaid.