It’s About Loving Yourself

TRAVELLING – It leaves you Speechless, Then Turns you into a Storyteller”, I once read this quote at that point of time was not able to connect to it, but Yes now I can connect the dots.“Travelling has never been one of my favourite things to do hence never have been too fervent to travel and explore places; yes sometimes you are out of choice when it comes to working.

I was supposed to travel via a flight to Hyderabad for a client meeting, (got myself saved from travelling 12 hours via train ) however, had no idea that I was destined to have an amazing trip experience. Since I reached the airport before the due time and with only cabin bag, had the luxury to sip a coffee, had sandwich and picked up a novel for the travel. Reading a novel while listening to my favourite playlist while travelling is an ecstasy for me.

I always prefer window seat and fortunately, my wish was granted as I seated myself near the window seat. No matter if you travel by flight, train, bus etc your fellow passengers play a vital role to decide the fate of your journey. However with PPT to work on, novel to read on I found myself well equipped to make ample use of this travel being least concerned for my fellow passengers.

So my 1st fellow passenger showed up, fair complexion girl wearing a college sweat-shirt (St. Francis College Bengaluru, was printed at the front )and jeans in her 20’s with short hair ( though she managed a small pony), seemed to be on skinny side, wearing specs took seat next to me. So the first thought that popped up in my head “Good, I’ll not get disturbed by her, as she was carrying some novel in her hand and to me, she appeared bit studious kind.

We exchanged smiles and she introduced herself as “Natasha”, but my friends call me ‘Nats” she emphasised on. “Great Nats” all I could say because for the next 10 minutes she shared her whereabouts with me that I ended up remembering one of my favourite Bollywood movie “ Jab We Met” in my head. Yes, she was another “GEET” Alas, don’t ever go on looks all I could say to myself. Inspite of this she sounded super confident, carefree, easygoing, full of energy etc. The conversation could have carried on however we were interrupted by our 3rd fellow passenger who took her seat.

 She seemed in her 30’s, long hair, bit dark complexion and was on a healthier side as compared to her 2 fellow passengers’ (Me and NatsJ). So Nats found the new target and again the same information was shared with her. She met with great disappointment when our new passenger just introduced herself as “Priya” and she got busy with her mobile ignoring her stories. But this didn’t stop her from getting back to me, 

Before Nats could have started the conversation with me again I was already going through my novel. To much disappointment, Natasha said “Oh, it seems you are occupied, never mind carry on. I give her a smile for giving me privacy however I noticed there was something she wanted to convey me, but stopped herself.

In the meantime, the flight was getting ready for a takeoff, seat belt signs were ON, the plane had started running on the runway.

 Though I resume my reading, yet I just couldn’t. Closing the book I asked “Natasha, are you all right? You seem sick? What happened? All of a sudden she was all sweating, her hands were shivering. “Should we call for a doctor?” Priya asked she too noticed Natasha uneasiness and now like an elder sister we got worried for her. 

One of the air hostesses noticed the situation; she came to our place to offer Natasha help however we had taken up the role of her elder sister too seriously. We told her we’ll take care of her not to worry.

Seeing us been going all possessive for her, Natasha tried to give a smile told us how she gets uneasy especially at the time of taking off. “It’s just momentary thing and I would be fine” she tried ending her sentence.

Ignoring her annotations Priya continued rubbing her palms while I offered her homoeopathic medicine which helps to calm down in such a situation. “Don’t worry, this doesn’t have a side effect, this would help you to relax and shall put you to sleep?” I told her with conviction. She just looked into my eyes and gave a small nod to the medicines. 

After popping the medicines I told her to close her eyes, relax and take long deep breaths. The medicine worked though she slept in some time she seemed relaxed. Seeing Natasha relaxed we both breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thank God, she is fine” these were the first words Priya uttered to me “She looks such a baby when she sleeps” she further continued.”Thanks, Priya, you were great support here I told her. 

Not a problem, while I must say you medicine did some wonders, she was pretty taken aback by the effect of the medicine.” Oh, it was a normal medicine, I told her about sleep thing to get her to relax I winked at her.

“You have pretty good convincing skills,” Priya smiled at me.”Well, am glad it worked at the right time” I smiled and replied to her.

While Natasha was taking rest we took this opportunity to get to know each other. To our surprise, we had a lot of common interest and no wonder we clicked like anything. It seemed we were old friends catching up with each other after a long time. After catching up with general information Priya made a serious revelation about herself, how she wished she was more like Natasha.