Every year from February to March begins the time of planning for vacations. Schools close for the summer vacation in April, and everybody wants to make good use of this time of the year for an extended family trip. Some people look for exotic hill stations, but for most others, as an age-old custom, the mothers plan to visit their parents’ house with their kids. And for the kids, this is a hell of a memorable ritual every year. They have some of the most amazing experiences with their maternal grandparents, uncles, and aunts during these trips. It was already the middle of March, and this year Raj and Priya were late to start their vacation plannings.
Fortunately, for Raj and Priya, choosing the vacation destination for the summer was the most straightforward task. Priya’s place is a famous exotic hill station. Her parents and brother still lived there. So every year in May, she visited them with the kids for an extended vacation and towards the end, Raj joined them, and they returned together. Every one of them looked forward to this vacation each year. This year too, the plan was the same. But life had been too hectic, and they were late for the travel bookings. Finally they booked the onward flight tickets for Priya and the kids. The airport was around a six-hour drive from their place, but they preferred to go there by train as it was a more comfortable mode of transport. So they booked the train tickets too. Half of them turned out to be confirmed, and others were wait-listed.
The first weekend of April was approaching. Exams were about to end, and in another week’s time, it would be time for Priya to leave. Raj opened his laptop to double-check the booking details. He meticulously reviewed all the information on the flight ticket; the name, age, and flight date were correct. Then he logged into the train booking site. He again checked all the details on the train ticket diligently. He confirmed there was enough time between the train arrival and flight departure. All was fine, except their wait-listed tickets were still not confirmed. He made a note of it and, on his phone, put a reminder to check the train ticket status every day at 8 am.
The following three days were too busy for Raj. Yet he kept checking the booking status every day at 8 am. Finally, it was just two days for Priya to leave. When Raj checked, the booking was still not confirmed. It was vacation time, and now the possibility of confirming it was slimmer. Raj made some plans. If it weren’t confirmed by the next day, he would look for a new booking from Tatkal Quota. The next day he checked the status at eight, and it remained unconfirmed. At 10 o’clock sharp, he logged into the train booking site. That’s when Tatkal booking started for the next day’s trains. He used all his technical skills. He quickly punched in travel details and went on to make payment. But typical of vacation season, he could not get the confirmed ticket. He frantically searched for other train options. A day before itself, he had searched and noted down other suitable trains. But it was all in vain. He couldn’t get any booking for any of those trains. He disappointingly closed his laptop and started thinking at a ferocious speed. He had not yet cancelled his wait-listed tickets. But the chance of confirmation was next to impossible at that last hour. They could drive. But then he would need to search for a hotel to stay. He would also need a driver as the distance was quite long. In that case, arrangements had to be made for his stay too. The hotel had to be near the airport to reach in time after some rest. But hotels near the airport were too costly, so he had to consider the additional expenses too. That day as he got busy with work, his mind and brain were occupied with all these thoughts. He was thinking about all the possible permutations and combinations and ways to keep additional expenses to a minimum. He felt exhausted, more mentally. He had been overthinking. He returned home. Priya understood something was wrong with him as soon as she saw him. He told her what he had been thinking the whole day. Priya smiled and said, ‘Why bother so much? Let’s wait till tomorrow morning for the tickets to confirm, or we have our car, and we will take it. If we reach quite ahead of time, we will Google a budget hotel and stay there, or if we get late, we will go straight to the airport, kill some time at the shops outside and check in at the flight time.’ As always, Priya had crushed Raj’s full day’s brainstorming with her two simple sentences. And it was a final nail in the coffin when in the evening, they got a message from Railways that their ticket was confirmed. Now there was no need for any of Raj’s backup plans. The trip was on as originally planned!
Priya was delighted when she reached ‘her home’. It had rained recently, and the weather was pleasant. As every year, Priya started making plans about the things they would do together when Raj arrived. She noted down new restaurants he would like to visit and some new trekking destinations yet unexplored by them. She was excited, thinking about how happy Raj would be when he arrived.
Time just flew for Priya. She was busy meeting her aunts and uncles, her childhood friends, neighbours and all she had spent her childhood with. She was enjoying her favourite food, waking up late, and not being bothered about cooking or other routine chores. This carefree time was the best thing about being at her parent’s place. It was time for Raj’s arrival the next day. Priya went to the airport to receive him with her kids and father. They all loved it when Raj joined them like this every year. Raj’s flight arrived on time, and they all drove home excitedly.
For the first two days, Raj did nothing. He enjoyed the weather, had coffee and read his favourite book. He loved lazying this way. On the third day, they planned to go to a remote jungle at the state border, trek there the entire day, and have dinner at the newly opened Kebab House on the way back!
They started the day early. It was a beautiful three hours drive to their destination. For the first two hours, they were on the national highway but later it was off-roading through tea plantations, crossing multiple small water streams. It was all raw yet enchanting. They reached their destination. It was a culmination of three state borders. There was hardly any cell phone signal. And Raj was pleased about it. He always loved this kind of respite from work-related phone calls. Priya’s two friends had accompanied them. It was the first time there for them too.
Priya loved nature, especially trees and mountains. Raj loved the pleasant weather and greenery. He loved the calmness of the forests and, in his mind, thought about writing about it in his next blog. They roamed through the dense forest. Priya kept explaining to him the peculiarities of various trees. They all recalled funny moments from their previous trips, and they would burst into laughter. It was afternoon, and they reached a small but beautiful water stream. They finished their lunch under a tree nearby, and then it was time for the kids to swim. It was more of splashing water and having fun rather than actual swimming. Kids were having a great time, and suddenly, it started raining. It was a pleasant drizzle. After years Raj experienced rain like this. He carelessly got drenched. He completely forgot about his sophisticated job and life. The kids were thrilled beyond words!
What started as a drizzle slowly increased in intensity. It started getting dark, and the wind was picking up pace. They decided to wrap up, and by the time they reached their car, it was raining cats and dogs. The wind got quite heavy, almost into a mini storm. They needed to go off-road for an hour or so to reach the highway, but the storm was bad and there was water everywhere. It became difficult to make out the road. It was a time to seek help of Google Maps. But alas! There was no network. They tried again, but water logging had made finding the landmarks difficult. And slowly, the joy started turning into fright and panic. Priya and her friends knew the area was known for flash floods and landslides. They had to get out of there anyhow. Kids were frightened and hungry, and it further raised their anxieties. Priya looked at Raj. She knew he would have some solution. Raj got his cell phone from a plastic cover in his pocket. He switched it on. He had studied the area when Priya had told him about the plan. He had downloaded a Google map of the area and switched off his phone to save battery when he realised there was no network anyway. He had kept his other phone off since the morning as a backup, and it also had offline Google Maps. Everyone was relieved. The offline map worked well, and they reached the highway eventually. After that, it was a smooth drive to the Kebab House. As they reached Priya gave Raj a tight hug.
Raj was an over thinker. Someone who always sought a back up plan for everything he did in his life. He spent a lot of energy time and emotions for these back up plans and at times missed the fun of the original plan. Priya on the other hand took life as it came. She loved facing the unexpected. But when the unexpected got too difficult to handle, she found herself stuck. And they both wished that they could learn something from one another!
