Walk With Me

By Yamini Singh

It was the night of April 3, 2022 when I finally left home. But that night meant much more than that. It was the night I finally took my first flight and let go many things. That was the night my name meant dearly to me. With tearful and chasing eyes I left for airport, leaving my home, my father behind. I was in the cab with my mom and my brother. My brother lives in Mumbai so it was quite obvious for him to go with me and my mother well, we were going to find flat for me to live so she helps me find one. Yes, well I technically didn’t leave alone but it still was a big thing. I wanted to be on my own ever since I graduated class 12. I already was 4 years behind. My thoughts of that day were very contradicting. I spend some good laughs with my closest friends and shared some unsaid emotional bond with my father. My father of all people has always thought me as a little baby so it was harder on him to absorb the fact of me leaving than rest of us. That day we had an unsaid territory among us. So, with all the emotional baggage and dreams I left my home around 8:30 for the airport.

I was excited, quite enough to see a lot of things for the first time, first flight, new city, new language, first time living alone, new people, new opportunities. My head and heart were full with these thoughts. After getting to airport, we got in the line for baggage clearance followed by security clearance followed by my mom being afraid of escalators. Our door for boarding was in first floor and my mother took a way too deep breath before getting on the escalator making me wonder how will she react when flight will take off. All the clearance routine and everything was guided by my very personal tour guide, my brother who is a regular flight traveller. When he took his first domestic flight, I was in school and a little overjoyed so just to give him some competition I told him, “My first flight will be international and fully paid”. Well, now everything is a part of big history. With me taking my first fully brother’s financed “domestic” flight, I at least got to complete the fully paid section of my 5 years ago said words. Cheers to me!

I started filming the second we got announcement for boarding. It was a long corridor of walk and I wanted to see back those videos someday so making snap was the best choice. Although making snaps is always the best choice. And after a long walk I could finally see the plane gate. Being an overexcited first-time plane traveller, I passionately greeted every flight attended with a smile behind my mask. Soon, plane seats were full. I switched the seats with my brother to get a window seat. Youngest in a family should always get a window side seat and that’s the rule I really stick by. My mother was as excited as I was actually more excited than me. Just as we settled in our seats, she immediately took snaps and put those on her whatsapp status. Soon the plane started moving and we took off. It was a smooth take off. After a while the city lights looked like the most beautiful bright dots. The overall plane ride wasn’t that much exciting. But at times when the cabin lights were off and I could see the outside world it was very soothing. I felt like a little baby who just discovered the fancy cotton candy and all her baby focus was on enjoying that tasty sweet treat. My tasty swe

et treat was the treat of realisation of how much the world has changed and how little yet significant we are. Whenever I looked outside the window that’s what I could think off. Maybe it was the result of my first travel or me moving out of house or just me trying to grasp the becoming of a butterfly process but my thoughts were worth it. I was at peace looking out. There were times when I wanted to sleep off but I stopped myself. I wanted to grasp all the moments in that flight. My kind off biggest mistake was to not download any songs to enjoy that view with. I had just one pre-recorded audio of me singing along the artist cover of Falling by Harry Styles and I listened to it in loop.

It was 1hour 45 minutes flight. Around 11:55, they had an announcement about landing and getting our baggage from the belt and not clicking any pics since Pune is a military airport. Around 12:05 we landed and straight went for baggage claim. My mom sat down, me and my brother was in baggage claim belt and bam* We mistook one baggage as ours. I guess the owner had the eyes on his bag and when we took it, he came towards us and asked to check the name and then returned and apologised. If he didn’t had eye on his bag, we would have checked it later before leaving and that means both the bag owners going under panic attack. So, that didn’t happen and it was all good again. We got all out baggage then left for our hotel. I didn’t check the time but it must have been around 1 o’clock by the time our cab came. I am telling you all, this start-up of cab service at your fingertips, man that’s empowering. We reached around 1:50 – 2:00 to our hotel. It was quite far. I was really sleepy by that time but this time the silent roads and slow winds made me admire the new city. Was I ready to love the new city just after travelling 2 hours? IDK! Was I mentally okay to finally leave my city? I clearly and really don’t know. I was feeling little uncomfortable in health but it was under control. We were all tired, and wanted to have good night sleep. I washed up, put my phone to charge, closed my eyes and said to my mind “To, chasing my ambitions” and then dozed off.

By Yamini Singh