Solo

by Sharda Sharma (India)

A leap into the unknown India

It was quite possibly the worst trip of my life, or so I thought. Everything that could go wrong had gone wrong and I hadn’t even reached the destination yet. The fact that I was travelling solo for the first time did nothing to ease the anxiety and tons of dread that I was already feeling. Before I could get down from the plane and reach my destination, my anxiety had convinced me to never travel alone again. Little did I know that I was about to make memories that I would cherish forever. It was a cold day in January when I decided to pack my bags and head towards the hills. I booked the tickets and told my mum that I was going away to Himachal Pradesh. “You’re crazy. Why would you go there all alone, especially when you don’t even know anybody?” I kind of agreed with my mom, I had to be crazy to be thinking of travelling all alone to a place that I didn’t know even remotely know. But the tickets had been booked and the desire to travel solo was too strong. After all, how tough could it really be? Catch a plane from Delhi, get down at Shimla, get into the Airbnb and voila I had my ‘base camp’ all ready, and then I could enjoy the beauty and the scenery that surrounded me in abundance. It seemed really easy then, but it wasn’t. It all started to go wrong once I landed in Shimla. I had my backpack with me and I was to collect my suitcase from the baggage belt. I stood there completely in awe with the natural beauty that was rendered to the modern looking airport by its surroundings. The wait was long but then I could finally see my suitcase. It had to mine as everybody else had already left. It looked like mine but the tag told me otherwise. I ran to the baggage inquiry desk, intimating them about the exchange in bags. They acted fairly quickly but it was too late anyway. The other passenger had already left and they were not picking up their phone, the texts didn’t go through and even though the chances of them reading an email were quite slim. This small mishap held me up at the airport for two hours. I held onto the hope that I would get my luggage back and everything would be back on track. But it wasn’t so, the other passenger was already on a connecting flight to Dharamshala. Now Dharamshala is a 6-hour car ride from Shimla, on normal roads and in a pleasant weather. But it was snowing and chances of the roads being closed were quite high so a car ride to Dharamshala was not an option. I decided to go ahead without my bag. I made it to my room in a sour mood. This had not been the most ideal of starts to a journey that I was excited and slightly apprehensive about. The first two hours in my room were bliss. I showered and mapped out a plan on how to make do with the items that I had in my backpack. The food took me back to my home and my mood was slightly getting better before the news broke that we were in for a hailstorm. To spend the first four days of your first solo trip holed up in your bed doing nothing is not exactly ideal. When I did make it out of the room and onto the roads I was overwhelmed with emotions. I could not believe that I had finally made it to Shimla all alone. The snowcapped mountains and people wrapped up in layers and layers of clothing is a visual that I won’t forget. I had stepped into the unknown, all by myself and had heaven in front of me. The long and narrow meandering paths, the endearing conversations that I shared with the people and the friends that I made will stay with me forever. At 18 years old, I crossed off solo trip from my bucket list and I can’t wait to add and cross off more.