August 11, 2016 – A hard goodbye to Family, Patansaongi, Maharashtra, India

And the most dreaded day was here upon me!

I had been waiting to see the magical and life transforming journey to the US for quite some time now, but at the same time, the thought of leaving my family 8,000 miles away dreaded me and this day, I realized I wasn’t ready for it. The morning when I woke up, I knew the ultimate sadness was upon me and I just couldn’t handle it. I spent a few minutes in the bed that morning, soaking it in, and planning the day in my head and realizing within 12 hours, I will bid goodbye to the wonderful people in my life for some foreseeable future and would never get a chance to see their faces everyday as I have been doing for the last couple weeks.

I know my parents don’t express their emotions that much, especially my Dad (like every Indian Dad), I knew, deep down, they were sad that I was going to a new country all by myself, without realizing what was before me and what the future looked like. At the same time, they had a confidence in their upbringing and the learnings that they have taught me and my three sisters over the last couple decades and knew that I could handle these new things with utmost confidence. And my parents had always been like that. Be it sending me to Nanded for my Engineering, heading to Bangalore for my first corporate job or this time, sending me to the new country for my further education, they had always surprised me with the kind of support and freedom they had given me to take my own decisions and carve my life in the way I like and choose to.

The morning and afternoon was gone like a whisker. I didn’t even realize the time as I had to take a last look at my packing, weighing everything to the last minute and eating some delicious food made by my mom. By the time, it was 4PM, we were already getting ready to bid goodbyes to each other.

As I have mentioned before about Rakshabandhan, this year’s celebration was a little different. Even though the actual celebration was a few days away, we decided to celebrate it today itself, as I wouldn’t get any better chance to celebrate it with my sister, after today. So, my sisters and mom, made sure to give me a perfect sendoff by celebrating this beloved festival together.

Here’s the snippet of that celebration.

I definitely wasn’t giving away my ear-to-ear smile as deep down I knew I had to bid goodbye to these moments in a couple hours!

And that’s when the waiting game began! One of my brothers-in-law graciously offered us to drive to the Railway Station in Nagpur, and trust me, we desperately needed that ride as I had two full sized luggage bags, with a couple small ones and a laptop bag. Also, it was raining heavily that day – one more indication that the cloud Gods were not happy with me leaving my family! 😭

Anyway, as we were waiting for our ride to arrive, me and my sister, clicked a lot of pictures. This was the only with a good quality that I could find. You can see, we are *somewhat* smiling as everyone wanted to protect each other’s feelings and didn’t want to show sadness as I was about to embark the journey of my lifetime.
My eldest sister, Minu Tai, is missing from the picture, as we were missing her during this time. I love these people in my life and never trade anything for them!

And after waiting for some time, my ride arrived. It felt like a small car but was enough for us to accommodate us inside, with the luggage and everything. Before getting inside the car, I took one last look at my home. This has been my oasis for a few years now and with that one step, became my parent’s home. It is weird how we draw these lines. Anyway, I felt mixed emotions while bidding goodbye to this wonderful place called “Milind Niwas” with a promise that I will return soon!

I don’t remember the journey from my place to the Nagpur Railway Station as I was mostly thinking about my future and how terribly I would miss my family. I do remember doing some small talk with everyone in the car and cracking jokes whenever I could, because that’s the only thing I am good at when I am sad, I guess!

By the time we reached the Railway Station, I had a good 45 minutes before the train was supposed to leave. That’s when, out of nowhere, my friends started to show up. I didn’t expect them being there for me, waving final goodbyes along with my family. I must admit, I felt great and proud that I have built such amazing relationships and friendships over the years that people took time out of their busy schedule just to come and see me travel to a faraway land.
This is the squad that was present when I took the train to Mumbai, from where I was supposed to fly to New York, via Abu Dhabi, my first international destination.

I couldn’t thank them then as I was more focused on my journey and worried about my life in the US, but, I would like to say how grateful I felt when everyone came to see me off and wished me good luck for my future journey.
Thanks, everyone!

What followed this was truly a life changing event and you will get to hear more about it. Stay tuned!