Travel is not about taking a flight and wandering the world, it is much more to me. It makes me experience the unexpected, feel that can never be visualized, and made me think about things that are beyond my imagination. Traveling and Voya.is an inseparable part of my life and during these trips, I have got some amazing experiences that I would like to share: -
1. It soothes my mind and makes me feel lighter and fitter.
2. The mystery of a trip is that it relaxes me even in the storm and gives me a sense of peace in the most vulnerable situations.
3. I have gained ample learning about the beautiful cultural heritage of our country and how its Cleary reflects unity in diversity.
4. Solo trips have taught me a lot about my life and gave chance to me for self-exploration.
5. Family trips have always helped me to strengthen my bonding with my family, In the hassle of our life nobody has the time to sit and spent quality time with their families but trips give us this opportunity.
I was 12 when I, along with my parents and brother were returning from a trip down south. It was a whole two-day journey and d my mother was already tired from the whole running around. The train had barely left the outskirts of Tamandu when my father left the compartment. He normally would stand out near the door for a long time on the train journeys and we were used to his absence so much that if he ever sat with us, we feel something is wrong. A few minutes go by and dad enters with a small baby in his hand. My mom sat up straight and stared at him. "Does the family know you took their baby?" She asked. My father loved and adored kids. He would play with random babies in any place he can find them. He knew a dozen ways to make them laugh, a dozen tricks to make them eat, and more than that to make them sleep without a fuss. My mother on the other hand just enjoyed kids from a distance except for her own. "Obviously." He spoke. "Do I look like a kidnapper to you?" "Well, whose baby, is it?" "See that guy sitting near the window?" My dad pointed at a lone guy sitting on the side lower berth diagonally across from where we sat with a sad look on his face but smiled when he saw us looking at him. "His." He said and started playing with the baby who looked around 8 months of age. My brother and I sat next to dad and started playing with her as dad tickled her and she laughed. "Her name is Sapna. She is cute?" My dad asked us. "Hello?" My mother asked for attention. "Care to elaborate. Mr. Naidu?" She hissed. "Arre... His wife has a high fever and is on heavy antibiotics. Has been advised complete rest, so she is sleeping on the upper berth. They traveled back to their native village and he couldn't postpone his trip. But the baby can't be with the mo her, what if she gets a fever too? The poor guy was tired of holding and playing with the baby, which I am sure he doesn't do much. You should have seen how he was holding her. Anyway, so I offered to hold her for some time." He whispered and waved at the guy who smiled again. This was the 90s and people were generally more trustworthy. To imagine this in today's time may not be possible. My mother hit her forehead and stared out of the window. "You and your love for kids. I am tired. I am not going to look after that kid I am telling you." She warned him. "We don't need you anyway." He made faces at my mother and went back to playing with her and we joined him. We played with the baby for an hour when she started crying. The father was helpless and he said he doesn't know what to do. The mother was out because of the high antibiotics. Her fever had increased and he had given her another round of paracetamol. "she told me I can handle it. Truth is I can't, o brother." He told my father. "You don't know what your baby would have for lunch?" My dad asked astonished. "Uhm. my wife would have packed something. I need to see." He rummaged through the food bag and took out rice and curry. He proceeded to feed her making her sit quite uncomfortably on his lap. She refused to eat and he gave up. "Maybe she is not hungry." He said as he closed the box. . My dad was furious and took the food from him. "She is crying because she is hungry. Give me the food." He mashed the rice and added curry. He made small little balls out of it and played with her feeding one morsel after the other as she gulped them down hungrily. "You never fed her before, have you?" My dad asked the confused fellow. "No. Never had the need." "You don't need to need to feed." My dad said in exasperation. "Have you ever made her sleep?" The guy looked at my dad. "My wife was always there so." "Yes, never felt the need. I get it." My dad rocked her in his arms after she had a tummy full of food. She clutched my dad's shirt and drifted off to sleep. The father slept too after some time and my dad shrugged. "Look at him. Does not worry about the world. His daughter is with a stranger and he is snoring away." He said to my mother. "Please wake him up and hand over the baby." My mother urged my dad ."And then what? He doesn't know a thing about her." "He is the father he will learn. Just hand her over. We don't want tension over our heads. "My dad woke up the father and he took the baby and made her sleep beside him. She started to cry and my dad picked her up again. . A few seconds later he brought her back. My mother was livid. "What did I just tell you?" She roared as I saw the scene from the upper berth. "She started to cry. You saw that right? I couldn't do it. You sleep baby!" he said to the sleepy baby as she clutched my dad's shirt again. "Do whatever you want." My mom muttered and took her berth. Later in the day, my mother changed her nappies and my dad put on new ones. Meanwhile, the father just sat and gave us the required items. My dad fed her the evening snack as well as the night dinner from our food box which we had brought with us, as the father sat there still clueless. The mother woke up just after we finished dinner and asked for the baby. The father narrated how my dad had looked after her the whole day and she thanked him profusely for that. My dad handed over the baby who by now felt like our own family... "I miss her." My dad said hugging us. "You want a sibling like that?" He grinned at my mother who kicked him. . "Shut up!" We all giggled. . The mother felt a lot better than the next day, we assumed, so we hardly saw Sapna. She still cried while going to the father and smiled graciously when she looked at my dad throughout the second day. While getting down at our station together, my dad noted down their address and promised to come by someday as the family insisted, we keep in touch, and thanked us again for the help. And then much to the amazement of the mother, baby Sapna jumped up and down asking my dad to hold her. My dad picked her up and she hugged him tight and waved a bye after a couple of minutes. . I don't know if my parents had ever visited them after that day, though I would hear repeated refusal from my mother when my dad would convince her to have another sibling for us. That day as I sat with him tending to the little one, I felt lucky that he is my dad. Quite an unforgettable travel memory that makes me smile whenever I think about it. As a mother myself now, I can truly understand what the guy would have gone through if my dad wasn't there to help, though now I what kind of a father he was since my father and my husband have set the standards too high. . 20 years later, now whenever I see a baby and have the urge to pick him/her up, my Husband just smiles. He knows this is a gift I have received from my father and it's impossible for me to be away from kids. Over the years, I now have 100s of photos of me with random kids, taken by my husband as I play with them, as I reminisce such above instances and remember my father.