Hello guys, How are you?
It's been four months since the lockdown started and like every day, today I woke up at 12, again. A lot has happened within these months and now that I think of it, I don't think I've wasted so much time, ever before.
Well, right now I'm lying on my sofa, writing this blog, and wishing that I never get bored of it. "Why are you telling us this? we didn't ask you."
Guys, I'm sorry okay. I know you all are dying to get out of your homes, go back to school or college, get back to work, and go for treks. I know you want to hang out with your friends, eat panipuri, burgers, and the tasty subway sandwiches. Trust me, same here.
Well, Today I'm going to share, one of the greatest, sudden, and most amazing experiences of my life with you. Before that let me tell you guys, I wasn't here in Mumbai for half of the lockdown period. Oh God! How do I tell you? You guys won't believe the journey I've had, and everything that, I and my brother had to experience. I know, I know, you guys might be thinking, what could be worse than staying at home 24/7, doing nothing and just getting fat.
Well, Let me rewind to when it all began. The merry month of March.
On the 20th of March, we were given holidays from the college due to Covid-19. The same day, during the afternoon, I got a call from one of my close friends, Abhishek, saying that he and Aarushi didi will be coming to my place in an hour to meet me. It was all of a sudden because the next day, she was going to leave Mumbai and go back to her hometown - Ahmedabad, Gujarat. So, we made a firm plan and in an hour they were at my place.
We hung out for a long time, ate pizzas, talked about special things. I still remember she had to work from home. She had a laptop with her, and while she was working, we were having fun.
Di was so annoyed although, grinning silently. We talked about how much we miss Gautam, her younger brother.
Our families have known each other for a long time, even before we were born. Our dads are best friends. They are like family.
A few hours later, it was getting dark, so Abhishek decided to leave with her. But I wanted them to stay because I met them after a long time that day and I wanted to hang out a bit more. I asked them to stay. Abhishek had to leave because he had an errand to run. I tried to convince Di. Suddenly, out of nowhere my brother said "Akka, let's go to Ahmedabad?" and surprisingly I wasn't shocked because maybe somewhere I thought it's a good idea. I could see the surrounding becoming a little serious about it. We all were pretty serious about the idea of going to Ahmedabad with Di. The tickets could've been booked in a minute and both our school and college weren't going to open until next week. The only task was to ask for my dad's permission. When I asked him, he denied it.
Minutes later, my dad got a call from Harish Uncle, didi's dad. And before I knew, our tickets were booked.
We were going to Ahmedabad! Yay!
We were very excited. We packed our bags and got ready. The train was scheduled at midnight. We were going to board from Mumbai Central. We took a train from Thane, then changed trains from Dadar and reached the station in an hour and a half. We reached before the given time so we had to wait. Seconds later, Di received a message on her cellphone. It said that the train which we were going to take is cancelled.
Me, my brother and Aarushi Di were standing in the middle of the station and were a bit scared at that time. Minutes later we decided to head back home and see if there's a train scheduled tomorrow.
We went back home and slept for hardly 4 hours, because the next train was scheduled at 8 in the morning, in Borivali, for which we had to leave by 6 from Thane.
The next morning, my dad dropped us to Borivali station by the car. We boarded the train and reached Ahmedabad, within 8 hours.
Harish Uncle picked us up at the station and we were ready to move. We were very excited to surprise Gautam and Nisha aunty. When we reached home, Gautam was sleeping and the minute he woke up and he saw us. I'm pretty sure he thought it was a dream because he was still half asleep.
Well, after that we made ourselves comfortable. We had lunch and a very great, cozy catch up.
Two days later, on 24th of March, at 7:45 pm, everybody was sitting in the hall, waiting for Modi Ji's speech. Everyone was so attentive during the whole speech. The second he said there will be a lockdown for 21 days, my first reaction was, happy and excited because we were going to stay there for a month, or so I thought.
Well, after 21 days the Lock-down got extended, and then again after that.
But, I have to say this, that these 2 months were some of the best months of my life. We made a lot of memories. We tried so many tasty, delicious Gujarati dishes, we played so many games, had 3 am conversations, teased each other, had political discussions. We cried, we fought, we laughed so hard. We also made new friends from the neighbourhood. We listened to Harish uncle's Life lessons and old embarrassing stories about my dad. You won't believe this but we re-watched the whole Avengers series and played quizzes related to it.
It always felt like home.
But as time passed, we started missing our mom and dad. We used to video chat but that wasn't enough. Luckily, the journey pass to cross the Gujarat border, which Harish Uncle was trying to get from a long time got approved by the government agency and after two and a half months, it was time to leave.
I could never forget about the day, we had to leave. It felt like I was leaving my home. But in my mind, I knew when I came here, that I had to leave someday.
So, again, we packed our bags and got ready. It took almost two and a half hours for us to reach the Gujarat border.
Let me tell you, the upcoming part is the worst part of the whole journey.
When we reached the border, it took us 3 hours to just cross it because the Gujarat police had a very very strict process of checking all the forms and everything else. Both Maharashtra Police and Gujarat police were present by the border. I could see my dad, on the other side. There was a misunderstanding with one of the inspectors regarding our names which took almost 3 hours to be solved. My dad and Harish Uncle tried to explain, convince, and talk to him about the issue but there was no scope. We both sat inside the car for 3 hours.
Finally, a lady inspector came and knocked at our window. She asked us to take our bags out and come with her. I saw my father waiting for us. He smiled at us and waved at us. We took our bags and started walking. We met our dad, after two and a half months, which by the way felt like 2 years and held him tightly.
The police inspector did our check-up. They checked our temperature and oxygen level. They were fine. After three tiring hours, we finally crossed the border and we were officially inside Maharashtra. What a relief.
My heart was so relieved to be back on the streets of Mumbai. I was smiling throughout the whole car journey because with me I was taking back a bag full of memories and dozens of mangoes. Finally, we reached home. My mom was so so happy, she said, "Finally, my two kids are back!"
We called Harish Uncle to inform him that we reached home safely.
We ate Chicken biryani - Mumma's special, after 2 and a half months and it felt like paradise. We had dinner and spoke about how everything was in Ahmedabad.
That night I slept like a baby.
A random picture of me with Aarushi Didi, Abhishek, Gautam and Manish (my brother).
(We were Home quarantined for 14 days after that)
Guys! So this was one of the most insane and memorable experiences of my life. If you have stories like me then please share it in the comment section. I would love to hear them.
Thank you. Have a pleasant and a healthy day!
-Lots of Love.