We should all go on a holiday together
A statement with an invisible question mark at the end of it.
I leave it out there on a video call with my friends.
There is a need I feel but don’t have the words for.
Visit us this winter - J suggests.
Three months pass by like the flipping of pages.
One Sunday, I take a screenshot from Skyscanner and leave it on the group.
Guys, the tickets are quite affordable now if we want to do this
One friend asks for a change in dates, and I agree right away!
All dates on the calendar work for me.
I want to nudge them the next weekend, but I wait it out.
It’s a busy time, it always is. And that's reasonable.
D goes ahead and books the tickets. Oh great!
One booking, two booking, three bookings done!
A new WhatsApp for ourselves – ‘Delhi 2024 (Coordination group, will delete post trip!)’
Now for the Airbnb. Aaand that’s done too!
How cool that everything is set two months in advance.
We all agree on a broad itinerary and sit easy.
I am sorry, something’s come up at work – a message drops.
And within days, another one opts out of this trip.
I then make a call asking the others – are we going ahead with this?
We better decide soon if we are calling it off.
But hey, we land on a cold windy afternoon that feels like late evening.
We are greeted with warm hugs, hot snacks and loud laughs!
And then, we start to share rooms.
That’s when we fully realize what we’ve gotten ourselves into!
We learn to put up with each other - the snoring kind, the early risers and those who hog the bathroom!
After a day or so, I start to wonder - do I still find it funny or is it nostalgia that is making me laugh at the same old joke?
And of course, nothing goes as per our plans.
Some of it is mildly bothersome, but some of it is hugely annoying!
One night, I step out into the balcony to gaze at the sky and think of how far we have all come. It’s like we live on different planets altogether.
We all have our own quirks that everyone else has to put up with and it's a whole task to do anything together.
Should we do this again sometime? - I am not entirely sure.
Maybe this is not something people our age do so often.
When I walk back inside, I am greeted with a room full of laughter.
Bodies falling over each other in fits that pull me in without even knowing what the joke was about!
I wake up the next morning and type these two words - Animal warmth.
As I wait for my turn at the bathroom, I start to feel low that the holiday is over.
On the flight back, it strikes me why we do all this.
Because we belong there - we belong to that group - in a way that we belong nowhere else.
There is a part of us with our school pals, a part with our college friends, a part of us with our cousins group and a part with our families and extended families.
That part of our being comes alive only with those people. They preserve us and keep that part of us safe with them.
That is why we go all the way out there.
To find ourselves. To meet ourselves. To know ourselves.
So relatable! I feel this acutely as I rarely spend time with different groups of close ones - extended family, cousins, and friends only every year or two. Despite the physical and, at times, emotional distance, the utter ease with which we can pick up where we left off makes it worthwhile, despite the frictions and mild annoyances!
Oh spot on! Sometimes I wonder too why I do it especially when we are all getting on each other’s nerves! But when I look back I am always SO glad that I did it!