New Delhi, Sept. 28 -- What's the first thing you do after moving to a new place? I always do laundry. On the first night in the apartment I moved into last month, the washing machine hummed as I wiped the drying rack with disinfectant. I find this oddly satisfying about relocating: the deeper-than-usual cleaning of ordinary things; everything you own gets a fresh start along with you.

A month on, a few cartons remain unopened, most corners still unorganised. The joy of relocating is harder to locate. Having moved more than five times in just the last decade-because of redevelopment and job relocations-I began to wonder what our way of moving reveals about us as people.

"Frequent relocation can shape personality around the theme of tran...