SWADESH TO VIDHESH- PART 1

Hola Steemers!!

Its already a week of my Steemit life , I’m so glad that I decided to be a part of this family. Writing is such a stress buster, realised it now. Today’s blog is related to my journey from Mangalore to London. I will be posting this in two halves because it’s a lengthy journey (you will realise it as you continue reading). And if you enjoy reading my roller coaster journey from Swadesh to Vidhesh don’t forget to UPVOTE, FOLLOW and RESTEEM.

So, every Tom, Dick, and Harry would have experienced certain things in life, even I did. My experiences may not be as great as others, but I love to enjoy every bit of it and find happiness in everything. I’m a person who cannot be sad for more than half an hour (mainly because I’m extremely forgetful and will forget the reason for my sadness within half an hour).

Coming from a middle-class family, I never got a chance to fly internationally as a kid which never happened even later, until I got married to Mr NRI (Sid). Once the marriage was fixed I only knew is that my childhood dream of getting married to an Mr NRI was coming true.

Though I knew my Mr NRI existed on earth never thought I would get married to him. When I relocated to Bangalore for work I started staying with Mr NRI’s sister for first 4months. I was very close to his sister and would ask her when is your brother getting married?

“All I wanted is to wear a lehenga for someone’s wedding and he was in the queue”

His sister and parents were in full form searching a girl for him from all parts of the city and Mr NRI would sit in London and reject all of them one by one. Him getting married was a mystery for all of us. Though I hardly met him years back I heard a lot about his stories. Was interesting to know that he was a Xerox of mine. Crazy, easy going, love movies, like to make friends, and negligent with the keys.

My sister in law’s maid asked me one day why don’t I get married to Sid? and she went on explaining how good he is. You both will be happy blah blah blah!!!
“Whattttt!!!! Is this lady gone crazy? I’m planning how to design my lehenga for his wedding and this lady want to make my setting with him?”

After about a year my dad calls me in the evening and said that they got a call from Mr NRI that he wants to marry me. The surprised me dint know what to say? As ever girl does I took some time and decided to get married to Mr NRI.
“I wish our maid could have made a wish for herself at that moment because her wish of me getting married to Sid came true.”

Now my dream of marrying an NRI was coming true. A girl who has never flew by flight was going to a new city London. Was all excited and started applying for visa. Always heard Mr NRI had a weird way of booking flight routes, which I got to experience when he put a bomb on my head.
Bangalore->Mumbai->Istanbul->London that was. And since I stayed in Mangalore, I had to take another flight from Mangalore->Bangalore. So, it was Mangalore->Bangalore->Mumbai->Istanbul->London.

“Who does that? Either he doesn’t want me to reach early or want to give me an experience of mini world tour”

Me being the first-time traveller was kind of nervous about travelling alone international and from the other side my parents had no trust that I would manage to do this. But no other option, because Mr NRI told he cannot come to India any time soon. Was very upset with Mr NRI and his flight booking skills. In between all this dilemma, I observed that I received just an itinerary and not the flight tickets. As per the ITINERARY my Flight from Bangalore to Mumbai was at 19:25. I always had difficulty with this 24hours format and started counting to know 19:25 is 7:25 PM and that was registered in my mind.

Now that I did not receive my tickets Mr NRI sent me an email-id and asked me to email asking for tickets which I received after a day or two. Since I was travelling for the first time and was very cautious, I had almost byhearted everything that was written on the ITINERARY which included the departure time from each airport.
All my pro traveller friends guided me so well about the entire process of Check-in & Immigration. Must say that really helped me but I always knew I will try my best to screw up things cause I’m born to make things different and memorable. My forgetful and careless nature always helps me in doing this.

“I tried really hard this time as well but almighty saved me each time. All thanks to my mother’s prayers and she made sure I leave the house before RAHU KALA (Only few will understand this Rahu & Guliga kala)”

My flight from Mangalore to Bangalore was at 11:30AM and my mother India wanted me to leave the house before 9:00AM. My parents were emotional that their daughter was going to a new city which is miles away from them and would not get to see her for a very long time. Even my In-laws were quite attached because after wedding for about 6months I stayed with them until I got my visa. So, with this mixed emotion of going to London and leaving my family and friends behind I reached Mangalore International Airport by 9:30AM. I finished my Check-in in no time and had whole 2hours for myself.

I started watching people’s behaviours, their actions, kids jumping around, people’s happiness about their trip, some discussing about the wedding they attended, some tired faces etc. After a while I just took a flight to my dream land sitting in the airport. Suddenly I heard someone screaming “Is there any Bangalore passengers left?” That triggered, I’m still sitting in the airport lost in my thoughts and it was already 11:30AM. I quickly picked up my backpack and the cabin trolley and started running towards the flight.

“Thank god I did not miss the flight else my friends waiting for me in Bangalore International Airport to say a final good bye would have hated me for making them wait”

My first journey completed, and I was already in Bangalore which is my all-time favourite city and this airport has a lot of memories. A lot of night outs happened in this airport. The 24X7 Café Coffee Day was a saviour. Whenever I wanted to spend some time with my friends and wanted to go for a long drive we would end up reaching this airport. But this time the feelings were different. I had my friends around, but I was going to leave them and go to a new place to start a new phase of my life. My friends were emotional and so was I.

To spend some good time with my friends we decided to go to Indian Parata Company(IPC) for lunch which is close to the airport since my next flight according to me as well as the ITINERARY was at 19:25. Two of my friends Srijeeth and Gautham met me in the airport and the other two Praneeth and Amar came directly to IPC. Leaving in Mangalore Srijeeth felt IPC was extremely over rated place which even I feel but had no better place to hang out. Amar was a full-time entertainer. Though Srijeeth and Gautham met him for the first time they completely enjoyed his company. Amar and Praneeth were my crime partners in my previous organisation. I was their baby and would always make sure I’m safe. I was going to miss all four of them.

That’s it for today guys. Will soon post the other half of the story. Stay tuned for the twist and the whole story😉

See you soon 😊

Love from London

@varunpinto Thank you for this beautiful editing :)