Today's prompt is quite an amusing one for me. I love travelling and have had the privilege to travel a little in my life so far. I used to live in a city called Mumbai in India and grew up there till grade four. I had the chance to take a vacation to the united states from there for a month and who knew that THAT would be the start of something beautiful in my life?
The Air India A870 flight took off from Sahara Airport and I remember my grinning face's reflection against the window. I had never sat in anything this big, not even a roller-coaster that resembled it. I thought of all the other trips I had taken in India as the pilots and the crew got prepared for the flight and as the videos for fastening seat belts looped over and over again on the screen in front of my eyes. All the other trips involved a jeep and me sitting beside a window seat or a seat near the back of the jeep. As I recalled, it was almost always dark when we travelled and I had started to believe that it was some sort of custom, but I enjoyed travelling in the dark. So, there I was, lost in memories until I saw the outside of brightly-lit Mumbai started to move around me. The airplane moved slowly but surely, turned and then sped up like an angry leopard! I had never experienced such speed, such an exhiliration in my life, the entire aircraft was at an incline before I knew it and I was watching the city like a little bird. The incandescent lights looked like beads of gold making up an enormous necklace and then there were the special reds, greens and blue lights around the city as well.. by themselves.
I barely slept through that flight. The entire airplane seemed so BIG to me. I would walk around every so often. I even went upstairs to check out the second floor of seats. They looked a bit more cramped though. So, I went to the front of the airplane.. near the entrance and when I thought nobody was looking, I even peeked into the business class. It looked so much better! I couldn't believe it. I think I even asked my mom 'how come all the fat people get the better seats?!' haha.. Sometimes, I wonder where that child went.. I feel as if he might not be a part of me anymore.
Anyway, I reached Chicago's Airport and saw my dad after what seemed to be ages! We were seeing each other after two years. It was a perfectly bollywood, filmy scene.. my sister and I ran up to him and then he hugged us and then took the bags from my mom and hugged her too. And that day I learned, you dont value the things you have until you lose them! It was a beautiful moment, we had rented an apartment in front of a public school in Wisconsin. That was where my dad worked at the time. I would go out to the public school's park during recess and the teachers would let me play with their soccer balls and marbles and things. Even though the kids weren't as eager to play with me, I somehow learned a few things about them.. somehow. I remember the first day when I went out to 'explore' the school, the teachers saw me and called me over if I wanted something to play with.. I was too shy to ask but I stayed around on the swings. When the bell went off, I was making my way back to my apartment and they called out to me and then I told them that I wasn't even part of the school. They laughed and said I was welcome to come by anytime. As I was leaving again, I was waiting at a red light and a lady's car pulled up beside me and asked 'Don't you have school, young man?' I replied with the hardest Indian accent and whatever little English I knew at the time 'I am on vacation' I don't think she believed me but she left anyway.
During that month, my dad would come home every day and even though he would be tired from work. He would have a cup of tea and be ready to take us out since we had been at home for the entire day. He took us out to the waterpark called 'Noah's Ark' and the amusement park 'Six Flags' and many many other places. Over the time, I had started picking up on English and had started saying 'ya' instead of 'yes' quiet comfortably. The teachers in India didn't like that when I had returned. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to stay too long. I returned to Utah after in another year and explored the states again with my family and then we flew to New Jersey. We lived in Heightstown for a year and I did my grade 5 there. Then we flew to Canada =) But out of all these travels, I loved the one to Chicago and Wisconsin.. it will always put a smile on my face as I recall it and deep into the waves of nostalgia.
-Devarsh Pandya
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