August 12, 2016 – Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

This was the second day of the trip and my last day in India.

If you haven’t read yesterday’s journey, I will strongly recommend doing that to have a better idea about my itinerary from home to the US.

So, this day started on the railway track as I was taking a railway to go from my home, Nagpur to the city from where I was supposed to fly out of India, Mumbai.

I knew I was going to Mumbai and then to the US, but when I woke up in the train all by myself, there was a 2 minute delay in this chain of thought. After opening up my eyes, I couldn’t connect the dots between my existence on that train and where the train was supposed to take me. I am not sure if things like that happen with you, but I happen to experience it all the time, especially after a good and powerful afternoon nap. Maybe I slept in the train quite peacefully that night, who knows?

Anyway, after coming to the reality slowly, I decided to click a selfie and capture the moment. Inadvertently, a smile appeared on my face. I knew my family was back home and I had just bade them goodbyes 12 hours earlier, but I couldn’t help but remain excited for the journey ahead. I was looking forward to catching a plane and experience my first international flight and this excitement helped me come over some of the sadness that was drawn upon me the previous day.

Here’s the selfie I am talking about.

After I woke up, I had to wait almost 3 hours before the train reached the Mumbai city. For one reason or the other, I am one of those people (and I am ready to take criticism for it) who don’t like Mumbai. It might be the crowd, it might be the humidity, or maybe some other factor. Whatever it is, I detest Mumbai and if given a choice, would choose not to visit it. I know I have mentioned in the past about falling in love with the Nariman Point during my first visit, but, that was an anomaly, and still couldn’t make me fall in love with the city. Maybe, its just me! 😭

Anyway, I was greeted with this scene outside when my train started pulling in one of the railway stations in Mumbai.

The plan was to head to the Mumbai International Airport from this railway station and my youngest uncle, Suresh Kaka, graciously agreed to accompany me to the airport and see me off catching the plane. Suresh Kaka has been an ardent supporter of my success and has always blessed us with career guidance and whatever support we needed! Him agreeing to join me hauling some big bags in the hot and humid weather of Mumbai was just the kind of support I needed while embarking on this beautiful and life changing journey.

He was already at the Railway Station when I stepped out of my train coach on the Railway platform. I was so happy to see him. We still had a few hours to go before my flight, so I decided to take a quick shower in the waiting room of the Railway station. If you have ever visited an Indian railway station, you could imagine how the bathrooms in the waiting room would be. I feel cringe, if not horror, just imagining the state of that bathroom and wonder how I could take a shower there. Anyway, swiftly moving over to the next phase of the journey.

We took a cab from the Railway Station to the airport and it seemed to be the longest cab ride for me as I was desperately waiting for the airport to arrive. The Mumbai weather was getting on my nerves, and I just wanted to breathe some airport air. I know, it sounds weird, but that’s what I was feeling.

We made it to the Airport and things became quite formal between myself and Suresh Kaka. He started telling me many wonderful stories about foreign land, and I, being the courteous nephew, heard them patiently. He also told me to always look after myself in the country far away. He made me promise to take care of my parents once I start earning as they have sacrificed a lot for my happiness. Again, I complied and thank him for accompanying me on this journey.

As the 3 hour time was getting closer for my flight to depart the airport, I had to bid him goodbye and tell him to travel home safely, as there wouldn’t be any way for me to check on him in real-time. That’s when I saw a small tear drop in his eyes, and I had to tell and promise him that I would take care of myself and requested him to do the same. Before heading inside the airport through the security gates, I quickly snapped a selfie with him, his moist eyes quite evident.

One thing I knew deep down my heart after clicking that selfie was that my life is never going to be the same. As soon as I am going to enter that airport through the security gates, my life would be changed forever, and I really needed a moment to grasp the gravity of this moment.

That’s when I looked back at Suresh Kaka through the security gates and found him still waiting for me to wave back. This was the moment it finally hit me that I was going to be away from my family for quite some time, all by myself, surrounded by a bunch of strangers, with a no support system. For people surrounding me at that busy airport, that moment had been as insignificant as any other person, but, for me, it was the moment I realized what I was going to do. This was the moment that really transformed all the things around me and made me a person who I am today.

As I was reliving this moment again and again, the time was not stopping for anyone, and that’s why I decided to carry on. I knew I had a little extra luggage, so I needed a few extra minutes to convince someone at the luggage counter to make an exception for myself to haul such a big luggage. As all this craziness was going on, I managed to capture the magnificence of the Mumbai Airport as an appreciation of the thoughts that went into designing such a marvelous structure without disturbing the current inflow and outflow of the flights.

And I was almost done with the check-in process. Being an ardent appreciator of my selfie clicking skills, I managed to capture myself with the luggage, which turned out to be a Facebook-worthy photo and I remember getting a lot of response. Many of them congratulatory messages and best wishes for the future. Aha! Good old Facebook days!
Here’s what it looked like.

After checking in and clearing the security, it was the waiting time for me, when I got in touch with everyone that I could think of – my family, girlfriend, friends, and relatives. I made sure nobody is worried about me and I sent a quick picture depicting how I was doing.

While I was engrossed in watching something on my laptop, I was interrupted with the boarding announcement for my flight to Abu Dhabi. That announcement brought a smile to my face, as my dream was about to become a reality. From Abu Dhabi, I was supposed to board a flight to Milan, Italy. And, from there, the final leg of the flight was due to land at New York’s JFK Airport.

After boarding, I finally took my seat and was overjoyed at the little goosebumps in my tummy. This is what I saw from my seat.

And as always, I clicked a selfie before I put the phone on Airplane Mode and the flight took off of the runway and bade goodbye to Mumbai for some unforeseeable future.

Stay tuned for the next stage of this trip! The next day was quite emotional!