SOLO TRAVEL : THE INCEPTION

I am Anshul Gupta , a Mechanical Engineer working with Maruti Suzuki India Limited, the company provides its employees with two shutdowns a year , ten days each. I had decided not to tell my parents about it because I did not want to spend these 10 days at home doing nothing , I was looking for something , I had no idea about , I had already spent the 4 days of shutdown at my flat ”THE HAVELI” J , yeah that’s what we have named it because its too big for 3 bachelors to live but we love our home. Anyways the four days at haveli were great as I had my childhood friend and my brother from another mother , that’s SHUBHANSHU living with me  and also a very dear friend of ours SHAMBHO , shambho is a cheerful girl with a happening personality with an ability to capture anyone’s heart and mind her thoughts and laughter.

Nipun and Gulati (we generally don’t use his first name ; Shubham) :D , had already gone to their homes so it was just three of us spending the shutdown partying and playing around.

27^th December 2016 : This fine morning as I wake up I find shubhanshu and shambho chilling in nipun’s room gossiping and laughing, I with my messy hair and yawning enter the room and these idiots come up with another pun on nipun and then started a chain of laughter and puns. I was hell irritated by this time that only 4 days of the shutdown were left and I had not done anything new , something that would satisfy my hunger for frolic. I just came up with an idea of going to rishikesh , shubhanshu had his classes and shambho had to go home , the plan dropped. But just then shubhanshu threw some light on the idea of going solo , and just by listening to him my mind started boggling and my heart started thumping and I felt a kind of positive vibes running down my nerves.

That’s it I went to my room picked up my phone that was on charge , and started looking for buses on red bus app and in a matter of 10 minutes , I booked a seat for the same day at 10 pm. I come back to nipun’s room and I told both of them that the ticket was booked and both of just looked at me like WTF .  Shambho then gave a surprise that she had a contact with one of the camp owners and could get me a tent , meals , trekking , rafting at a very affordable price and the next 15 minutes , I had done my booking at the camp and I was all set to go on this unplanned solo trip. P.S. I did not book the return ticket because I myself was not aware of when I would be returning. I just had to go . I did not care about the returning and the ticket because I wanted to face this challenge of going on an unplanned trip and I knew that even in the worst of times I would definitely find a way back home.

By 5 pm in the evening , I had packed my things and in a small bag , I did not want to carry a lot of things with me , so I just packed a few clothes and a few camping essentials. And as I went to shubhanshu and shambho , I could see smile on their face , I don’t know that was one of the best feelings in the world when your best buddies prepared you for an adventure of life and when they look at you with your bag ready to go. I looked like a mere smile but it hid within its depth a lot of emotions and happiness , I could feel it. Shubhanshu tied the black muffler on my head in a hippy manner and I could feel his soul saying , “go brother , live your life”. Those last moments at my home and their hugs filled me with confidence and I was all set to go to this solo trip to create many new memories..

As I take a ride in an uber to the nearest metro station , listening to the “pirates of carribean” theme music by Indian Jam Project , I find myself between the clouds of curiosity and excitement of whats going to happen next , whats going to happen when I reach there , how am I gonna handle the calls from home and everything else , but then suddenly what struck my mind is that “I can do it and I will” .

I reached Delhi ISBT quite early and waited for the bus I had booked my seat in. After waiting for nearly an hour I boarded the bus and here started my journey to the destination undefined.