Days are as quick as the 1-minute timer in a microwave, while hours are gone by the flash of reading a book, minutes are fast as a productive conversation with another person, seconds are equivalent to one human footstep.

The night of 12/18 is when it all started, my family was all packed up and ready to go to India with complications of the pandemic arising on themselves. Stress kept building bigger and bigger; when I decided to come during my remaining downtime, I talked the situation out with my family by making them feel good about it and getting ready for the big day the following day.

It was an essential trip for them because my dad's grandfather in India tested positive during the middle of November and waited to see our family come around the middle of December.

The following day I woke up; I couldn't believe what I saw in my house; it was like a moving train station with last-minute items being packed in the suitcase, waiting to receive the approval of COVID tests, packing food for the way to the airport trip. Even though I was not going to be joining them due to other commitments, I also got busy packing for myself and Masha (my Cavachon dog that's five years old in dog age).

From getting ready, making my food, packing all of my clothes, getting my computer bag ready, and picking out my books that I would be reading over the holiday break. I had a strange sort of feeling, which wasn't depression but just imagining a lonely kind of environment with just me being the only person in the room. From blocking that kick in my system to take over, I went down for a quick workout to release the bad energy and gained a favorable attraction around me. After the training and fueling my stamina, I started helping out with packing my younger brother, who wasn't as sure what he was going to do on the flight to India. From there, he and I just started reading the Bhagavad Gita as-it-is to keep the sanity of change that was coming our way for the next three weeks. With him flying to Delhi and meeting our parents' family in Chandigarh, I was going to be hoping from cousin to friends' houses to spend Christmas & New Year's Eve with them after a year or two.

Right at 11:30, I remember that I was the first one who needed to leave so my family members could get going with receiving their COVID information to board the plane and leave for the airport so they could reach on time for their first flight at 4 pm to Newark.

With the final preparations of packing up, my time was up for leaving to reach my first destination during this holiday break. As I got the dog ready, I waived my final goodbyes and a tearful good luck cheer for their trip and headed off to my cousin's house. When traveling, there wasn't any sudden shock, as I was listening to magic and a sky full of stars by Coldplay until changing it to the planet money podcast presented by NPR. Once I reached my destination, I first encountered myself with the bell situation of my cousin's house not working and had to knock many times on the door till he heard it.

After coming inside and doing the greetings from both sides, we talked for at least two hours about how everything was going with each other's life in the pandemic. Because if I am not wrong, the last time we met was sometime around the summer of 2020, when cases were relatively more minor at that time. After doing a few rounds of card games, a lovely dinner with dessert getting served at the end, and reading our respective books & articles. 

I started to get the wake-up calls from my brain neurons as my eyes were shutting halfway with the WILL book in my hands. Soon enough, I could already realize the night had come by real fast, w, which meant bedtime for me, as it was a short day full of action from packing, having an excellent workout, traveling from point a to destination, and having a great time with my cousin. We both said our final good nights, and just as I was about to sleep, I had to remind myself of all the grateful moments that happened with me on a Sunday. Even though the weekends are mostly known for winding down, so you can get ready for the next day. From there, I went on with my sleepless night of experiencing dreams and inspirations filled all around me, from the help of headspace night talks.

The following day on 12/20, I was getting my day ready with my work and tasks ready to get accomplished at Accenture. After the daily routine, I was working my way through the sunny morning till I got a knock on my door regarding breakfast from my cousin. I came down and had a different morning meal than usual, a flatbread native within the Indian subcontinent known as paratha. Because most of the time, I have it on the weekends, depending on how the day is flowing. Due to the difficulties of cooking and preparing this authentic meal, which comes from my Hindu culture, during weekdays. While discussing our morning plans for the day and talking about a fantastic night we had yesterday, his phone call started ringing regarding an impromptu meeting taking place in the next 10 minutes, and from there, we went back to doing our work.

When I got a phone call from my younger brother asking how I was doing, I was surprised to get an early call because I had expected they would still be on the flight from Newark to Delhi. So with me being curious, I end up saying that you've reached India quite early, based on the time you left the house, and I hear a silent laughing chuckle come from his mouth, which ended up with him leaking the entire story. That started when they reached Newark; our next flight's engine to flying towards India was not working, so the pilot and airlines team thought it would only take a max of three hours to fix. So they got all passengers to board the plane while repairing the engine and realized that this might take much longer than expected. An hour later, they announced the flight was getting canceled for the day and instead told that everyone finds a place nearby to stay so they could come back tomorrow to fly to their Delhi location. So my dad had to talk with the airline company about booking a hotel reservation, as he didn't expect the engine not to be working late in the night on 12/19/21. So next morning, on 12/20, they came back to Newark airport and couldn't imagine the crowd of individuals that were in the line currently. So that was their current status regarding a highly exhausting 12/19 extending into 12/20.

Jokingly, everyone from my family started saying that this wouldn't have happened if you had come along. But in the end, they all started laughing, saying, we know why you couldn't come up, but at least you got to hear what flight experience we had to go through. After a denial of not sure when the flight would be boarding, 5 minutes into my call, I could hear the loud airport speaker saying they had now started boarding the tickets. My family was like, this is a miracle, just after calling you, the flight has now got ready to take passengers and called me the lucky charm of their day before hanging up the call for boarding their tickets to Delhi airport. Those next 5 minutes after the call put me in a position of love, sympathy, and emotions all kicking in simultaneously.

It had been a long time since we had gone on a trip, and that also this being the second time when they left me behind due to the other critical commitments I had at that moment. But after a deep reflection of understanding the importance of how a family is more than just being around the individuals who made you born and come from the same roots as you. But having people around you be a part of the journey all together as one and having the independent mindset of evolving and growing up makes the bond of love even more vital.

I did tear up for a minute after the phone call ended but sent positive thoughts to reach their flight to Delhi, India. After that, it became hard to go back and start working, but sometimes it is better to get your mind off people, places, and things for initializing the focus to work. Even if you have a strong attachment tied with it, you don't end up analyzing too deeply about why you didn't go and make yourself go on an emotional roller coaster ride.

I have realized that family is everything, whether or not you agree with what Dominic Toretto says about it. Love is the oil that eases the friction that ends up cementing a powerful bond, like never seen before, together for allowing an endless road to carve out with a balance of harmony and dissonance playing an essential role throughout this experience of a lifetime.

Today, this was the first part of an article series that I have experienced regarding how important family is, especially being miles away from them on the other side of the continent.

Always remember family is an instinct meaning it's messy, adhesive, and aggravating, just like the continuous pattern of putting bad wallpaper that will not stick anywhere.

Whatever you like to call your family, everyone needs one. The best thing is that it can be anyone close to you on a personal and professional relationship level.

Stay blessed and continue to build that connection with individuals you appreciate or haven't gotten to know about yet and even started on the wrong introduction to understanding them a little better. Look at the bigger picture of giving just a bit more effort in between both points of intersection to create a healthier you for maintaining those beautiful connections.

Regards,

Himanish Goel

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