My Tryst with Solo Traveling
I returned home, with the newly-found confidence that I could manage such a trip alone in future, too.
had had my first thought of solo travel when I had watched the movie Queen. I was in a similar situation as Kangna Ranaut in the movie, after all. Her marriage had broken off one day prior to her wedding ceremony. Instead of wallowing in her misfortune for too long, she decided to go on her honeymoon alone. My marriage had broken down three months into the wedding, and with that had come a dark period of self-inflicted guilt, depression, and a sort of identity-crisis. Unlike Queen, I could not control the onslaught of emotions. However, like her I knew that I wanted, and needed, to travel alone to an unknown destination to soothe my mind and to find the answers to questions that boggled me day in and day out. Like her, I wanted to come of age.
I had already been doing things alone which other people often associate with company. Whenever my fancy caught me, I would go out and dine alone. Had learnt how to brave the stares of all those people around who thought that I must be nuts to have come out to eat alone. There were conjectures that maybe I was looking for someone to hook up with, when all I wanted was my me time, with no compulsion to indulge in a conversation for the sake of socializing. For an introvert like me, it is nothing less than meditation.
It was followed by venturing out to watch movies alone. That used to raise quite a lot of eyebrows, too. I had to brush aside the advice of well meaning acquaintances to ask a friend for company so as not to get bored. I used to wonder – once the movie begins, I am sucked into the vortex of action on the screen, so why would I want to break the spell of being a character in the movie by talking to someone? I just wanted to soak in every minute of the script, imagine myself to be a part of the crew, sitting on the edge of my seat, to come out of the hall, and then silently ponder over the scenes in order to be able to talk about the movie later.
No wonder that the next milestone I wanted to achieve was solo travelling. However, the idea of travelling alone to a completely new place was sure to send shivers down the spines of many. I am not talking of people outside my immediate circle of family and friends. . I was concerned about whether my parents would allow that since I was staying with them in my hometown in 2015. We all know about the horror stories of women who have been robbed and raped in the no man’s land. India is not considered a safe country for a woman to travel all by herself.
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