Soul-searching

This day last year, 29^th Aug, 2013, I stepped out of my home to reach a destination more than 11,000km away. A journey full of dreams and aspirations, excitements and fears. Honestly speaking, I was way more excited than scared. I was going to Montreal, Canada. They say every Punjabi should once visit Canada and I was performing my duty.. No kiddings!! ;)

Anyways, so there I was, ALONE on a journey that would lead me to a foreign land across the Atlantic Ocean! I had not met the landlady and had only seen the pictures of the house I’ll be living in, I didn’t know of the culture there, I had barely started learning how to blabber some words in French (Quebec is francophone after all) and I would have to survive on the food I cook or at the expensive eat-outs (Can’t pick which one was the worse option, back then). I had a long layover at Frankfurt, Germany and I was so stirred up when I landed there. This was my first step in a country other than India. Somehow I made my way through the long layover and boarded my next flight. Immigration at Canada took longer than expected and all I was hoping for was my bags to be safe! Of course, one priority at a time.. I can’t tell you how elated I was when I boarded the taxi. I had to get pinched to assure me it wasn’t a dream. I was wondering when did I actually get the nerves to go so far on my own, while as a schoolgirl, I used to be so afraid to go anywhere alone. I had surely come a long way from there! My journeys to Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad were the stepping stones to this day.

I visited Canada and USA in the best season ever, September to December. I got to see the leaves change colours (from green to red, pink, brown and yellow), drench in the water of Niagara falls and feel the first snow of my life in Labrador City. Such a myriad of experiences.! I went to Toronto with my classmates, thanks to the sponsored trip by our professor and to Labrador City in a Chartered flight as a part of a project work. I love travelling and I loved it even more when I didn’t have to pay for it ;)

How can I forget to mention the back-crunching bus ride to the USA, the short stay in New York and Washington DC. It was worth all the effort. Though I couldn’t get to see the Statue of Liberty and the West Coast, they are still there in my travel list. I hope to see them one day.

I lived one day at a time in North America for those 4 months, everyday learning something new and thanking the Lord and my parents for giving me the opportunity to find myself. I’m so glad that I took that trip, it made me a much stronger person from within. It gave me a better vision to accept people from cultures different from my own country and to have a broad mindset without being judgmental of anyone.

When I returned to India, I must agree that I was a different person. 

Rain and me

It’s raining again. Everywhere you see is chaos. People leaving for work with umbrellas, rain coats, polythene sheets over their heads or simply preferring to get drenched. Traffic is a total mess, thanks to the roads that fit in between the pot holes, in this time of the season.

However, the hustle-bustle of a rainy day brings to surface a variety of emotions. Some people feel happy that it brings relief from the scorching heat, some crib about the water logging and slow traffic while some just simply enjoy getting drenched. But I, I don’t feel anything. Rain takes me to a world of silence. It brings a strange inner peace to me. I look at things but don’t observe, hear the music playing in the car but don’t listen, read the book but don’t comprehend it. I am accompanied by people but still alone; it’s only this rain and me, in our own little world, away from this one.

When I can silence the noise outside, it helps me hear the voice inside. It takes me back to moments that the rain brought in my life. Playing with my siblings on the roof top of our house when I was young where I would enact to be a mermaid, getting to school half drenched only to find out that it’s closed and then coming back with no fear of the mud and getting the uniform dirty, jumping over the college wall coz that was still a better way to avoid getting my shoes wet by the water logging at the main gate, a walk by the Jefferson Memorial in a light drizzle and many more such occasions. It helps me rewind my life and at the same time, contemplate on the present and future. While many a time, I get busy and don’t find the time to stop and look where I’m headed to, rain brings me closer to myself.

So roll down those car windows, get those drops touch your soul and try to listen to the voice that gets diluted in the noise. All you need to do is to look up, feel the droplets and let your emotions take charge of you.