The elephant lumbers up to his calves, cutting a sharp path through the thick foliage. Animals greet him with enthusiastic twerps and excited cheers as he swaggers by. Exhaustion looms over his face and the arduous task has made his feet wobbly. But he walks with poise. The calves dart, frolicking around one of their younger cousins, squabbling over a toy that they discovered recently. 

I am in high spirits. I HAVE FINALLY OBTAINED MY PHONE!

You know the impediments of not possessing a smartphone in today’s world, right? It is subversive, against the norms of social etiquette. Your friends are continuously comparing game scores, discussing their lives over WhatsApp, planning trips, contributing to important decisions like climate change and habitat loss(or so it seems) discussing projects animatedly and listening to their favorite music and what are you doing, suffering in FOMO? This phone-free status had turned my world upside down and made me feel like a “recluse”. It didn’t matter if this device provided you with uninhibited access to the inevitable, cyberbullying, vulnerabilities, and distractions (A huge list provided by my well-wishers), I was not OK to live in the pre-historic times, you see! And clearly, the positives outweighed the negatives. (At least, for now…)

Yes, I know what my readers should be anticipating after reading the title of this blog, but right now, during this infernal pandemic, it’s a sin to be positive. It’s a perfect example of situational irony. Unfortunately, I received a harsh dose of this recently☹.

In my earlier blog, I had mentioned some of the places that we had visited in Mumbai. After strolling around the Marine Drive, we moved on to the last leg of our journey, visiting the famous beaches and sight-seeing a few other superstars’ abodes.

Recently, it was after much consideration and a LONG-AWAITED period(as in like 3 years), my dad decided on a 2-week trip to India before the exams. Being able to travel to another country again was astoundingly refreshing. It felt awesome, boarding the flight again(although when we used to visit India regularly, I HATED THE FLIGHT TURBULENCES, but now, ironically this time it felt like a GENTLE ROCKING). I visited my grandparents, and many embraces and tears were exchanged when we met and when we left. We left with the promise of meeting again in December and also came up with a plan for them to stay with us for a few weeks. On the last day of our trip, we had to take a flight from Mumbai, and thus, we had the opportunity to stay in Mumbai for a day. We grasped this opportunity to tour Mumbai, and it was an extremely unique experience, as I had never visited India’s financial and fashion capital before.

It was the last day we would be spending on this ship. I could already see numerous cargo ships, an indication that we were close to the city. I woke up incredibly early as I wanted to make the last day the best day on the cruise. Today, we had planned to participate in the Harry Potter quiz, a game of Family Bingo and watch a live show performed by the Kinetic Band. We would also be going swimming after breakfast, and as it was bright and sunny, we were hoping that the pool would be warmer today😊.

I woke up, fresh and rejuvenated for the upcoming activities we had planned. Instead of eating at Windjammer, we brought food up to our room and devoured muffins, coffee(one of the rare times my mother permitted me to drink coffee every day)croissants and juice. Yes, we drank juice and coffee. For today, we had planned to go for a napkin-folding class, watch a duo performance by Victoria Stryker(violinist)and Oleg(guitarist), play foosball in the Seaplex, an indoor stadium, go for a bumper car ride(also in the Seaplex), and then I would visit  the Living Room, which was apparently a “bonding place for teenagers”. My sister would also visit the “Aquanauts”, which included fun activities for children of her age.

I woke up to the sound of the sea and a cool breeze wafting in as I spotted my parents conversing in the balcony. There were SO MANYYYYYYY activities we had planned today, I doubted we’d even be in our room! As one of my classmates proclaimed, “On the cruise, the only time you are in your room is when you wake up and when you sleep”. We had booked a myriad of activities on Day 2, ranging from swimming to acrobatics shows to dancing!

Day 1- My dad informed us that we would be traveling to India in two weeks. I was SUPER-OVERECSTATIC!!

Day 5- My dad informed us that we would not be traveling to India as the Omicron cases were rising drastically…I was SUPER-OVERSORROWED!!