Road to India - 9 days to go [Packing]

The countdown has really begun. One of the fun parts of vacationing and moving places is ‘The Packing’. Yes, it deserves a ‘The’. It is a common question for everybody who is moving to a different place or going for long vacation, “it the packing done?” Answer depends on what kind of personality you have. It shows how disciplined you are, how casual you are and how careless you are. Let’s take these case by case.

How about if I start with careless types? There are many people I know who like to pack in the very last hour or last minute. It is fine if you are going for a short vacation within your state / country to have some good time. You only need to have few basic things such as tickets and money. But what if you are returning back to India from US? I have seen people forgetting their passports on the way to airport, getting late for airport because they hadn’t packed their stuff earlier. I remember, I was going to drop one of my colleagues at airport for a 4-45 PM flight once, so I took some time off from office and reached to pick her up at 2 PM, but she was nowhere to be found. Got to know that she went for some last min shopping; finally she came back at 3 PM and most of the things were not packed. Some of her neighbors finally helped her in packing and somehow she got ready at 3-45 PM; I had to drive fast to drop her at airport. Fortunately she was able to enter into the plane in time, but not without forgetting some of her stuff in the apartment. Only few things were later couriered to her, and rest of it faced trash bags, but that didn’t make any change in her life. So there is a class of people, who do not really care if they miss something, if they (or others) have to face consequences of their carelessness. Sometimes it is good to be careless, but most of the times, it is a pain not only for that person but also for others. So if you fall into this category, it’s time to be a bit more planned. Again, it is ok if you are going to a nearby place for a short vacation, but not if you are going for something important or going for long vacation.

Second type is the people, who over plan things. It is good to have everything planned, but, in too much detail, sometime takes the fun out of it because it reduces the surprising / exciting factor. You should have Plan A and Plan B, but there should be little flexibility in it so that you can take dynamic decisions to enjoy your trip and vacation more. If you fall into this category, relax a bit, take less tension. Have faith in your decision taking abilities and be fun.

Now the third type, they are the people, who plan well but not in too much detail. It is good to be in this category. Away from extreme of both types (first and second). You would find most of the funny stories for the people in this category. Sounds contradictory? How come funny stories involving people who plan well? That happens, generally, due to mistakes, overconfidence, lack of re-verifications, external factors. One of my friends (who is a responsible person and always plans well) missed an early morning flight (6 AM), because he was gossiping with friends till 2-30 AM, then thought of taking rest for 15 minutes. But those 15 minutes were costly as he woke up at 9 AM. It has happened to me also once. When I was flying to California from Bangalore via multiple airports, my first flight was at 5 am per my itinerary. I even thought what kind of international flight goes at 5 AM, but never bothered to check my tickets. Anyway, my plan was all set and I reached airport at 2 AM, only to know that the flight was at 12:05 AM. I had a long chat with airlines customer service and finally looked back at ticket that was showing 00:05 hrs, and I had interpreted that as 5 AM. What more can be said? I had to wait in Bangalore for 2 days to get the flights again. So, if you fall into this category, don’t be over confident, verify the important things at least once yourself (and if possible second pair of eyes would be great).

Now coming back to packing, plan is ready for this time as well. Separate list of items for my wife, for myself, for the stuff / gifts we have to drop in India, important documents, etc. Isn’t this funny? This cycle goes on for each person in life. We do have many firms to provide ‘movers and packers’ help for permanent moves, but we still do not have professionals who can help you in packing for vacations (of course, there are few exceptions specially if you are rich enough, you would have personal secretaries). Doesn’t it sound like a good business idea?

“We provide online packing services for your vacations. We have a step by step online guide and professionals to help you for this. Hire us and our experts will pack it for you in few minutes. Powered by Skype”.

- Neeraj Mathpal
Jul 12, 2011