A Family Trip
Birthdays are special. But what makes a birthday truly unforgettable is being remembered without social media notifications. When someone waits for the day and wishes you without fail, year after year, it becomes more than a greeting. It becomes love in its purest, most undemanding form. I am grateful for the very few who remember me that way, and one of them entered my life during a life-changing North India trip in 2017. In the summer of 2017, I travelled with my family on a 10-day North India tour across Delhi , Haryana , Punjab , Chandigarh , and Himachal Pradesh . We were part of a group tour, mostly Tamil families and two Malayalee families like ours. It was my first time travelling with strangers, people from different cultural backgrounds, different preferences, and different expectations. We flew into Delhi and, after a day’s stay at the guest house, boarded a large Volvo bus arranged by the travel agency. That was...