I rushed to my lawyer’s home. As he opened the door, I explained to him what had happened and asked if there was a way to litigate this. He dropped his head. His shoulders hunched. He explained to me that the chances of litigating this successfully were low. This was a service matter and such matters had a poor track record at the tribunal that handled such matters. I called my dad later that day from a PCO booth (no mobile phones). He seemed relaxed, if disappointed at the abrupt transfer, but even he wasn’t interested in contesting the transfer. In some ways, this wasn't a big deal. As kids we had lived a life filled with his transfers. A month later, my mom and he had moved to Delhi. I moved back to Bangalore. Life moved on.