It was not surprising, then, that it was not the last solitary trip. I have become addicted to be sure. The recent one was to Udaipur in January this year. It had come on the heels of quitting a job that didn’t satisfy me. In the middle of a week, when I was certain that I would get no company, I booked my bus tickets and hit the roads. It took me 14 hours to reach there, all of it spent sleeping in the overnight journey, so I hardly knew when I reached the City of Lakes. The resort I stayed in was beside Lake Pichola, and I slept to the murmuring of water, and woke up to the chirping of birds. It was bird-watching, literally. Wish I could run after the ducks as I used to when I was a two-year-old.
The special moment was when I got intimidated by the long queue for the ropeway to Mata Ka Mandir, but since I was single, and could be easily accommodated, a special door opened for me, and I was allowed to board the chair car first. I didn’t have to wait for even five minutes! Some treats are reserved for the singles of course!
The lakes had made my troubled mind stand still again. For the entire duration of three days and two nights, I had no worries. All I did was bask in the fortune of being able to go on one more trip alone. I relished the visit to the City Palace, learnt the art of taking selfie (quite late for today’s generation), and overcame the hesitation to ask complete strangers to click my snaps, clicking theirs in return, enjoyed the light and sound show, reined in my temptation to waste money on compulsive
shopping just for the heck of it, and for the first time, trusted the Google Map. I had never used it before, and now use it daily. Besides, just observing the locals and tourists from all over India, and abroad, added to my sense of diversity.
Till date there have been only two solo trips. However, I now know that it is going to be an annual ritual, to pay homage to my innate desire to undertake one more alone – far away from the maddening crowd, in the lap of nature. This is going to continue till all the places to visit in my bucket list are ticked out, and till the time I can earn enough to go travelling abroad all by myself.
Richa Verma is a Senior copy editor at Acadecraft Pvt. Ltd. She is a voracious reader and loves watching movies and travelling solo. Richa believes that writing is the best way to express oneself.
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