Stepping out of homely comforts, one step at a time…

I was in lower primary when the promotion of Maggi noodles began, of course we didn’t know back then what promotions really were! So we were served Maggi in some small bowl at school and after eating the Maggi, I returned the plastic bowl and the fork or was it only a paper plate and plastic fork I can’t quiet remember! Back home, I realised that my younger sibling had brought home the plastic fork too. So he had a fork and I didn’t because I didn’t know I could bring it home. And since I chose sulking, the brother went back to school to find if he could find a fork for me. Most likely he didn’t find another fork to bring for me and I don’t remember if I was upset anymore or not! The point I am making here is that it was the younger sibling who ran errands for me like this.

Of course at home, father took care of monthly supplies but if I needed a pencil or a pen, I would always coax my mother to get the same. In fact even when I was in graduation, my mother would buy sanitary napkins for me. Maybe it was my shyness of venturing out of home and speaking to unknown people, but my work got done and so I had no reason to worry.

Stepping out of home for post graduation was a sort of revelation — there were things to do and manage on your own. Thankfully there was a group of friends who would accompany me to buy essential stuff, a friend would actually ask for the sanitary pads from the shopkeeper while I would pay. These were the stepping stones on learning to do things on your own.

There was a first time when tickets had to be booked, forms had to be filled and submitted at windows in railway booking centres. I actually enjoyed waiting for my turn to come because Indira Nagar railway booking counters had seats and they played beautiful old Hindi film songs.

And then in the trains when I traveled alone, I learnt how best to spend the 72 hours of journey, plus any delays — some books, when to sleep, some train shopping at NJP, checking with the tea vendors if there was any delay and which station had passed by. The most difficult part would be deciding whether to hide or carry the purse to the washroom. Decisions you see, tough decisions need to be made when you are alone!

In the hostel I would apply my own strategy to wake up before everyone else did so I could use the clean bathroom, get the first bucket of hot water and avoid the queues and the waiting.

Before moving to hostel I would be choosy about my food, but hostel life teaches one respect for food and reminds one that food tantrums work only at your own home. And tell you, I have never had food tantrums since.

Moving out of hostel, we few friends moved out to an independent house so as to get rid of hostel restrictions only to learn how to fill our own water every time no matter anyone else woke up or not, to use the neighbourhood well to draw water when there was no water supply or throw the garbage out every morning. So when someone suggested we cook instead of getting food from the college mess, I stayed away as I saw how drawing water was difficult for some souls, cooking wouldn’t be a different story and only a couple of us would end up volunteering.

Following my studies, I would be accompanied to job interviews by my brother and what happened along were learning new routes, bus numbers, learning rules like how to walk forward when you were one stop before your destination or knowing what the fares were. There were times when he would sleep off and I would be anxious and hoped we didn’t miss our destination.

When my first overseas trip happened, my seniors at work were thoughtful enough to time my travel along with two others, one of whom was a first timer like me but the other had travel experiences to his name.

That was only a short warm up and all my subsequent work travels were solo. Once on a return trip back to India, the halt was at Malaysia and I had to spend the night in a pre booked hotel. I had three sims, to try and use, should I land up in emergency. From the airport to the hotel, through dark roads and sitting among unknown people in the cab, I tried in vain changing sims to see which one could catch the network; none did! I surrendered my fate to destiny!

At the hotel reception, I was told that there was no light, the lifts didn’t work and I would have to use the stairs to the first floor. Thankfully my luggage needed no such transit and so climbing the stairs carrying only the laptop bag wasn’t difficult. As I manoeuvred through the dark stairs to find my room, the only comic relief at that time was some Hindi film songs being played at the dining space downstairs to comfort me that I was not totally in unknown territory!

The room at Holiday Inn, KL was too big for one person and after I had figured out how to lock from inside correctly, I switched on the TV only to watch an irrelevant T-20 match being played and drifting away to sleep. And before that I did remind the reception for a wake up call; I sure didn’t want to miss my connecting flight next day.

Stepping out each time, sometimes a company for support and sometimes a stranger appearing and showing directions, it has been quite a journey. What I don’t yet know is how to deal with by myself is a lizard crawling on the wall. Back in the hostel we would chase some of those with brooms and lead them to the window so they could find their way out, but I don’t know how to deal with the ones that walk. And I can never go to sleep peacefully if I spot a lizard on the wall. I still need help!