A question about travel!

You know, travel is magical. Of course you know that! 

It’s magical, it’s amazing, it’s eye-opening, it’s enthralling! It’s hard work, it’s complex some times and oh! With a kid! It’s EXHAUSTING ! Bone tiring! 

And hence, after you are a parent, travel is a mixed bag  But it’s a happy problem because you are basically running away from your problems with some different problems to a different set of problems and it’s temporary and it’s a problem you are happy to solve  Hahahaha I read that again myself! Ramblings of a different level! But that’s for a different blog post altogether!

This time, I am here to tell you about my very random thoughts and questions on travel. 

You know, I have realized this about myself – I become a different person when I travel. 

For some strange reason, I feel different physically when I travel. I feel taller than I am, much much thinner than I actually am and I seem to think I have hair like a shampoo-commercial model. I walk with a spring in my step. Oh my god you should see me in the airport – I walk with an air of over confidence. I walk a taller, thinner and as if I were a very hot person – but in reality, it’s a like looking at a confused, forever rushing and scared fat cat. But yeah – that’s how I feel. But I also have my heart beat very fast and hard. I don’t know what it is about airports and planes – I feel extremely over-confident and very very scared and doubtful all at the same time.

Imagine, then, how I feel when that bubble bursts and I get “randomly” picked (Every single time) for a pat down or open-bags-and-recheck or when customs decides to ask me special questions – for which I don’t seem to have any easy answers! 

This once I was travelling to Singapore and the customs person, in all normalcy, asked me why I was going to Singapore. My mind messed up at that exact moment. Like it froze and then melted real quick and I answered with a very weird expression – TOURISM ! Yep! Tourism! Not holiday or vacation – Tourism! 

Well, now it was his turn to look weird. He saw me for a moment and held my eye for more than a few uncomfortable seconds. Then he got up! Oh no! I was going to be there a really long time! I saw my husband and son clear customs in less than 10 seconds and walk over onto the greener pasture. While I waited here for an uncertain few moments. Then that person returned with another colleague and both had weird expressions on their faces. This time the other colleague asked me the same question – but this time I knew the correct answer. I said I was going on a holiday with my family and optimistically pointed to them on the other side.

They seemed satisfied. By then my false tall height had returned to my regular factual height and now I started feeling fatter than what I already was! It felt like a thud! 

I thought the ordeal was over – but it obviously wasn’t! They asked me another question – “How many days are you going for” ! That was it ! I was brimming with tears at this point. I was only going for a week and all I needed to do was tell them that. They were both looking at me. I am confident one of them had a small smile beginning to form on his face. The other one was a bit irritated. I needed to say 7 days or a week. 

But what did I say? 

I said “one-fourth of a month”! 

Suffice to say, that sent them into a brainless tizzy. They spent a lot of time talking to each other in hushed tones and deliberated on some issue for almost 5-6 minutes. Passengers behind me in the serpentine queue were beginning to wonder what was wrong with me – they were a mix of irritated, annoyed and also curious! 

Ahh well, but some good karma caught up at that perfect moment for me. The customs personnel had deemed it fit for me to travel despite the amazing answers I gave them. 

But before sending me over to the happy side – the irritated person gave me parting advice – “udhar jaake tourism mat bol dena, India mein hi holiday karna padega phir for one-fourth of the time” and then both of them guffawed and high-fived each other.