One story at a time

Are you someone who plans every detail before a holiday or does planning every detail before you’re there firsthand makes little sense to you? Me, I would go so much to say that I act on Impulse. It had worked fine for me until it went south.

So here I am, in all my glory (and in one piece), to share with you a not so smooth trip, but full of silver linings. I didn’t plan a minute of the 20 days I was on the road. So in my upcoming blogs about my trip, if you take away even a single lesson, all the dizzy drives up the hill, tasteless food just to fill my stomach, and not taking second opinions, would be absolutely worth it.

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16 hours to go:

My best friend is travelling to Delhi for a five day work trip. I ask her if I can tag along and it’s now a plan. She will work, I will enjoy the room service (Had my walkman and my best julia roberts expressions ready) We both are so excited, because even though we have been friends for almost a decade now, we have never been on a trip together.

12 hours to go:

Here’s where the fun actually starts, due to unforeseen* circumstances, she had to reschedule but me being my impatient self, i decided to go anyway^, also the tickets were booked.

* people we didn’t think would create a problem to our plans, eg: horrible 
bosses, etc.
^ i was double masked up, traveled to places which were either open for tourists or were not containment zones.

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Booked Tickets + The Urge To Travel – A Proper Plan = A Trip Nevertheless

~ By Me

On the Day:

Here I am in Delhi, I called my friend who wanted some time off just like me. We both decide to leave next day to a place that I’d been planning to visit since I actually started travelling. A place that would definitely be open now.

We booked a night bus. Took us around 8-very-bumpy-and-freezing-hours to reach. Something I learned that day: if you’re choosing an AC sleeper, please always carry your winter wear with you. (I was in my cotton t-shirt and tracks, fun!)

We reached at 6 am when the weather was pretty pleasant, we checked in to a hotel suggested by our rickshaw driver which was surprisingly nice. At 11 am when we left the hotel, the burning heat from the sun welcomed us with open arms. I instantly wanted to go back and spend my day in the comfort of my deluxe AC room with the best view (just as the man at the reception liked saying)

Nevertheless, hunger makes you do all sorts of things. We ate a Special Thali in a Dhaba on the main street and a glass of chilled Lassi. With happy hearts and a full stomach, we decided to continue our day, we covered a few religious sites and shopped a little (it’s a joke, we shopped shamelessly) and visited The Golden Temple in the evening.

Something I learned that day:

Abundance of peace and happiness at a certain moment can actually tear you up. You only bask in whatever you can at that time and remember it for the rest of your life. This feeling is only for you, there’s no way you can put it to words.

That’s exactly what I felt when I was there. The beauty of the structure, the calmness in the water, beautiful songs in the background and most importantly the way every single person’s behaviour. From the person who kept our shoes at the entrance to the person who collected our plates after the delicious Langar we were blessed with. Every person was there by choice, not hired or asked to work. And they carried out every task or ‘Seva’ with so much respect for the work.

The whole of three hours that I spent in the vicinity of The Golden Temple, I barely spoke three sentences. But as you can figure, I have much to talk about it and I think I can write more. If you have ever been blessed to visit Harmandir Sahib, i hope you understand what I felt.

The importance of selfless seva is highlighted by the Guru in this verse: “ਸੇਵਾ ਕਰਤ ਹੋਇ ਨਿਹਕਾਮੀ ॥ ਤਿਸ ਕਉ ਹੋਤ ਪਰਾਪਤਿ ਸੁਆਮੀ ॥ One who performs selfless service, without thought of reward, shall attain his Lord and Master.”

I really hope everyone, in their lifetime, gets a chance to visit Harmandir Sahib, just to see when it was said to perform ‘Seva’ (selfless service), the people actually did it and with oh so much grace!

With our hearts full of happiness, stomach full of delicious food and bags with new clothes, we left Amritsar onto our next destination. The unprepared and funny tales of our next trip is coming soon. Hang on!