It was Time to Fly!

                                                          29^th June, 2006.


It had been almost two months that dad came back from Pune after completing my admission requirements for M.B.B.S.It had been two months that I was waiting to leave home, for the first time and fly away. Like literally take a flight and ‘fly’. Also, it was going to be my first ever air journey. For the Very First Time I was going to be living without parents, with new people (girls), in a hostel, new city, leaving North India. All of this for the very first time! So it was the time for a lot of new events to happen. Time to make new memories. I was super excited. Though the thought of leaving home did haunt me every now and then my happy excited thoughts would get clouded by gloominess. The thought of leaving Ma was more saddening. My Brothers, 2 and both younger to me, had never been without their elder sister. They kept ‘fake’ celebrating getting my room, the bigger and the one with the pretty French Window, but it was Me who could sense that those big smiles and loud words were doleful. I was the only one who could not get fooled by the blank look on their face when Ma mentioned that I should start making a list of things I would need to pack and take along. That look made me sad. But, time was changing and change 
is inevitable.


Packing. I hate packing. Though a lot say that packing should be fun as it gives you that ‘kick’ that you are going somewhere. You would be traveling. So it should be fun in comparison to unpacking which, is sad and no fun as the fun is over, the vacation ended and you are back. Well, I agree with all that debate but, I still do not like packing. It is just too much work. Organized work. And then everyone, especially Dad, who would stand on my head and point out that I over pack and that I should always travel light. Travel light? I was under the impression that the big huge steel machine, the Aircraft, was supposed to lift my luggage. So why ‘travel light’? I was not trekking my way to Pune. Well, all these thoughts are a proof that I hate packing. By the way, I really do not know how to travel light. Footwear is what takes up the maximum place in my luggage. Always. But, there was no running away. I was 19 years old and was leaving home to live an independent life so, I had to pack!
My fight was on 29^th June, 2006. I had a week left. 

There was lot of paper work to be assimilated, my certificates and mark sheets and the admission forms. Most of it was taken care by dad but I was supposed to make a final check list. So I did. It was done. Now came the time to meet my friends and family. Back then, I was not much of ‘meeting friends and going for lunch’ kind of a person. Also, I did not have much friends too. The one’s I had, were also busy with college admissions and most of them were moving out of Chandigarh just like me. There were days when mom used to make me sit down and talk about how life would be different now that I am moving out, how I would be responsible for all my actions and also, about finances. Ha! Have always been a spend thrift, and now practicing mending my ways *ahem*. These rounds alternated with dad and his talk over being wise and all serious about my studies as I am going to be the First Ever Doctor of the Baahia family so, I got to make them proud. Aah, what pressure man. It was too much for me. I could feel the Goosebumps but then, was too excited to get worried/tensed. I WAS GOING TO COLLEGE!  and then there was the excitement to travel by air for the very first time, to board a plane for the first time, time to get food served at above 20,000 feet off the ground level. The feeling was enthralling. And now that I have had so much of air travel in my life, the excitement hasn’t aged. I still look forward to the odd timings of travel to the airport, the hustle outside, the tears of the family members biding adieu to their loved ones, the uncontrollable excitement of the one’s waiting on their friends/family to come out of those gates, the air has a mix of flowers, sweets and all these feelings; needless to mention the long ques of cars and the police watch guards guiding them away. I love all of that about airports and traveling by air.


The day had come. I was all packed, clothes and memories and promises. Mum tried her level best not to cry but common, a mother ‘not’ crying while seeing her daughter off is just something that goes right. Right? Brothers were busy loading the taxi that was going to take me and dad to the Delhi Airport. Before I stepped into the car, mum hugged me and said ‘’take care my doll. It’s a cruel world out there but you don’t have to be like everyone. Just be yourself and conquer the world’’. These were the exact words, just that she conveyed them in Punjabi. ‘Golden words’ is what I refer to them, even today. I hugged her tight, promising her that I would never let her down. Hugged and kissed my brothers, taking promises from them to take care of mum dad and Buzo (my German shepherd back then) and would excel in their school lives. And this is how I finally drove away, looking outside the window and waving till the time their figures became blurry. Blurry because of the tears I had. But I could cry in front of dad. ‘crying means you are weak, and you are not’. I disagree, yet again.


So there I was, Indira Gandhi International Airport, domestic wing, sitting outside the coffee shop, waiting for the boarding to be announced and also for my ‘to-be’ roommate and her father. Dad told me on our way to Delhi that when he had gone for my admission, he managed to get me a room with this Delhi based girl whose father my dad befriended during the admission. So we sat waiting for them. Delhi girl. And so I drifted in the deep thoughts of how she would be, will we get along or not. Now I am someone who makes friends very easily, but this was going to be like living with her 24*7 and god knows how that would be! And then I heard dad saying, ‘’ hello beta, this is Nimrat’’. And there she was, my ‘to-be’ roommate, dressed in khaki colored cargo pants and black shirt, hair tied up in a messy way and she had that walk that made me say this to myself in my head ‘’oh man! It is going to be one hell of a time with her’’. I was super happy! Had the wide grin, surely made her think I was retarded or something. Wait till I tell you what did she think about me when we met for the first time at the airport! Ha! It was hilarious! And then the boarding was announced.
‘’OK Pune, you better be good to me’’. Trying to calm myself, I boarded.


What next? Well I kind of fell in love with the City and my hostel in the first look. How? Well you got to stay tuned for that!

                      So see you on Friday!
                           #LOVEMUCH