Trains and scooters

A great speech written by my sister Niharika! I can relate to every word she wrote. We both have spectacles and have seen baba work relentlessly all his life to give the best to both us. I am extremely grateful to baba and my sister and my mother, my whole family! Forever grateful :) Below is the most wonderful paragraph with so many emotions in a few words. 

Hello! I am Niharika Pal and I love to travel. Plain and simple. I aspire to travel the world and maybe someday get on board with Spacex and take that tour to mars as well! But today I am not going to describe any exotic destination but rather dive into my childhood and relive the ways I have travelled and what they meant to me.

When I was little, my favorite time of the year was during the summer holidays where Ma Baba Didi and I would make our yearly trip to visit my grandparents in Kolkata. There was this thrill in playing dress-up with Didi, while selecting clothes to pack, helping Ma in cooking snacks for the journey and then assembling all our luggage together ready to take off. But what excited me the most was the day long train journey from Hyderabad to Kolkata.

Hopping in the train, I would run to search for our seats, praying to god to give us at least one window seat. Sitting by the window, I would stare endlessly at the changing sceneries outside, play made up games with Didi and bombard Ma with questions. Ma! What crop is that? What would it be like working on a farm? Why do we have stones on tracks? Look ma, they are waving back at me! Do I sound like him? Chai chai chaaaaaii…..

Also, I would be fascinated by the way Baba would seamlessly initiate conversations with fellow passengers and how the 22-hour long train journey would become a jolly ride packed with debates, discussions and laughter. I would listen to all those conversations with my ears perked up in curiosity, wondering in awe about the stories of different people, places, and culture….

Most of my teens, I spent in traveling to and fro my coaching class that was 16 km away from home. My father believed in the power of quality education and left no stone unturned in providing for his daughters. My day would start as early as 3:30 in the morning with my mom dragging me out of my bed, forcing a toothbrush into my hand and pushing me into the washroom. As I had to head directly to school from my coaching class, I would have to get ready for school as well. This was only possible because my parents made an excellent team together! My mother would speed through plaiting my hair while my father would feed me as I wore my shoes lazily.

Then finally by 4:30, I would somehow be ready to start the journey and hop onto the scooter. I would snuggle behind Baba barely able to keep my eyes open, while he drove steadily through the dark, unflinched by the cold breeze, determined to reach the destination on time. As soon as the class got over at 7:30, Baba would spot me from afar and kickstart the scooter wasting no time. With half an hour in hand, he would quickly but carefully ride through the morning traffic, while I sitting behind would either open a book to revise my subjects for school assignments or rehearse for my morning assembly duties or just count the number of cows we passed by. No matter what the weather, heavy rains or chilly winters, this journey was my daily routine for five years, which made me embrace the values of patience and perseverance….

After working hard all those years, I landed a great college NIT Tiruchirappalli, located in Tamil Nadu to pursue Bachelor’s degree in Architecture. Studying architecture led me to document and explore numerous places across the length and breadth of our country. “There’s a saying, if you are offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat, just get on!” I rekindled my curious nature and jumped at any opportunity I got to travel. My trips served various purposes. I have been to Surat for an architectural competition, to Rajasthan to get touristy, to Gangtok for internship, to Shillong to attend a music fest, to Pondicherry just to watch the sunrise, to Spiti Valley in Himachal for camping, to Kodaikanal to practice Zen meditation, and the list goes on.

Why do I love to travel you may ask? Travel is exciting and inspiring, educative and challenging and most of all, it is a humbling experience. What I cherish the most is the journey, not the destination. Be it curious little Niharika traveling in trains or Niharika shuttling back and forth her classes sitting behind Baba on a scooter, the journey has been an ideal setting for self-introspection, for zooming in to zoom out, and ultimately lifting my spirits high! After all, life is a journey in itself and I am enjoying the ride, are you? Zindegi ek safar hai suhanaa… yaha kal kya ho kisne jana??

Thank you