There used to be a weird sense of joyousness whenever we were supposed to travel by train during my childhood days. Me along with my family were always immensely enthusiastic to pack our luggages for the travel, days before it. For your information, my father was an army personnel; he used to get posted to various places after every two years and my father travelled to end number of places, especially to beauteous places all around the country. I believe, he was truly lucky in the sense that he got to travel such gorgeous and attractive places like Srinagar, Leh and Ladakh are just to name a few. However, 'we' which included my four sisters, two younger and two older ones than me and my mother had clear instructions that we won't be able to travel after every two years. It was only because our studies would have been hampered and as a result, we had to stay for a longer period of time in a place until the much awaited travel time approaches. At this time, all seven of us would be obligated to pack our stuff with conviction and in specifically in an organised way. My father always transformed himself into a totally different person while we use to pack our bags, almost in a person having 'OCD'- our clothes, our shoes, edibles and others should go in different bags, especially our 'toothbrushes'. Yes, you heard it right , our toothbrushes received much greater importance than 'us'. As the day of the travel approaches, the whole house would slowly start getting devoid of articles and showpieces from the shelves. The same weird feeling which I mentioned earlier would start manifesting...the feeling of joys and sorrows blended together at once, it was a wonderful feeling after all.

On the day travel, that same joyous feeling would hamper my sleep and out of excitement , I use to get out of my bed around two or three at dawn. I still remember the feeling...and eventually my sisters would too. My mother would get busy preparing food for the journey, and five of us would fight among ourselves for our turn to go to bathroom. Momentarily, we all would get ready and step out of the house. My father has a special belief that whenever we were about to do something important then females of our house should be the first to commence it. He believes that it's auspicious, still.

The whole feeling is worth remembering, and coincidentally the feeling was here today and I feel nostalgic.






© Neelam Sharma