My hobbies are writing, travelling and being silent

MY HOBBIES ARE WRITING, TRAVELLING AND BEING SILENT!

by

MURALI MURTHY

As the Pilot announced that the flight has started its descent and all passengers are required to be seated, Keshav's stomach suddenly cramped, his eyes wide open, gripped the arm rest tightly. His stomach started making noises.

Keshav had this sudden urge to poop, and he knew it was about to get bad. Though he knew he can't get up from his seat and use the toilet, he just couldn't hold it anymore after 10 minutes of struggle.

With the dimmed lights, struggling to hold his poop, which was about to break open the dam and flood the flight seat, Keshav was restless and desperate to run to the toilet. Keshav seated in the middle row seat, the Chinese man on the window seat was observing Keshav's discomfort, but couldn't do much as he couldn't speak English at all, while another man sitting in the Aisle seat had nicely dozed off.

Unable to tolerate the pressure anymore, Keshav unlocked his seat belt, tried to get up, as the Crew was quick to announce "We request the passengers to be seated, as the flight is about to land"

Holding his butt cheeks tightly together, a tense looking Keshav sat and hooked the seat belts.

It's past 15 minutes now into the discomfort and the flight seemed to be the longest flight ever.

Keshav started all weird breathing exercises to keep himself calm and 'controlled' and started praying to all the Gods "Let me not just shit in my pants".

As the flight was about to touch down, he started sweating and praying for the flight to come to halt soon.

As the flight came to a halt and the lights switched on, Keshav started to make his way towards the rear end of the flight, struggling, begging 100s of other passengers who were already up and busy pulling down their luggage.

Keshav finally locked himself inside the Toilet and it was no less than a paradise....tears rolled down his eyes, he was happy.

What was supposed to be an exciting moment and he was so eager to land at Phuket Thailand, turned out to be a nightmare.

Keshav got his Happy face back, he started smiling and a relieved feeling as he held his baggage and got down the flight. He knew this was because of the binge Street food savoring during his last day at Bangkok.

Keshav hops on a Cab, welcomed by a friendly smile of the Cab driver, heads towards Patong beach where he had booked his hotel.

He was thrilled to see the beauty of Phuket, curvy roads, cool breeze, perfectly tarred roads wet with a quick shower, a mild drizzle made those roads ideal for a lovely ride, his hands were itching to get on those roads with his Bullet bike back home.

As he reached his destination, Keshav was amused with the picture perfect location of the hotel with the Patong beach right across the road.

Without wasting any time, Keshav dumped his luggage in the room, changed to a comfortable Shorts, T Shirt, grabbed his DSLR camera and rushed to the beach, as the Sun was about to set.

Keshav wandered around the beach clicking some breathtaking shots of the Sun, people and the beach.

Aware of his upset stomach, Keshav skipped dinner and ended the day with some Fruit bowl.

All excited for his next day's Scuba diving adventure that he had planned, Keshav reached the Dock to board the Big Boat to spend time at the gorgeous Phi Phi Islands.

As the Boat sailed through the rough waters, Keshav came out to the deck, clicked some pictures of the seagulls and went to a corner, lit his cigarette and was gazing at the magnificent blue waters.

He couldn't stop noticing a woman feeling sick, tired, trying to puke. He kept puffing on and looking at her, as the woman slowly approached him holding the rails "Can I borrow a cigarette, if you don't mind?"

"Sure" keshav took out a stick and offered to light it for her.

"Sea sick?"

"Yeah, these damn sea waters and this boating feeling makes me dizzy"

"Okay.."

"Smoking might deviate my mind and the smoky flavor will help me get over this sick feeling. I usually don't smoke, very occasionally."

Keshav just nodded and continued gazing the waters

Stubbing the stick, after half way through the lady says "Hey, thanks for the Cigarette, looks like it worked, feel much better now"

"Glad it helped you"

"Sorry..."

"I said I am glad it helped you"

"Hey, is it 1500D?" Pointing at the DSLR hung on Keshav's neck

"Yes it is..."

As Keshav gears up to his most exciting part of his trip, the most anticipated Scuba Diving. The long tail boat drives a small group of people deep into the sea and let them take the dip.

Keshav also finds the same woman next to him, and both exchange a smile and wave at each other.

"Hey, this is my first time, am so excited..you have done this before?"

The woman doesn't respond and just gets ready to take the dive. Keshav ignores her strange behaviour and makes a splash into the water. Keshav jumps into the sea with his Underwater camera. The mesmerizing experience of interacting with some exotic water creatures, colourful fishes in the crystal clear waters.

They end their Phi Phi Island trip and the Big Boat takes them back to Phuket.
The scene repeats as Keshav stands on the deck puffing on his cigarette, that woman again looking sick comes near him and wears a wide smile on her face "You need a smoke?"

"Sure, thanks"

As both smoke and keep looking at the mesmerizing view of Phi Phi Island getting smaller and smaller, the boat drives away from the island.

"So, how was your under water experience? This was my first time, yours?"

Keshav with a surprise look on his face "I asked the same to you while in the water, but you didn't respond"

"Oh, sorry. I had taken out my hearing aides, as I was in the waters and I can't hear without that. So, you will have to be bit louder or come close and speak."

A shocked and surprised Keshav didn't know how to react, he stubs his cigarette and asks her "By the way, my name is Keshav, from Bangalore"

"I am Tara, am from Bangalore as well, but settled in Delhi with my Husband"

"Cool"

"So, apart from Travelling what else interests you?"

"Music, biking...What's yours?"

"I guess my hobbies are writing, travelling and being silent...haha"

Both Tara and Keshav laugh it out, part ways and carry on with their plans at Phuket.

That evening, Keshav hits the roads along Patong beach to be a part of the extravagant night life at Phuket.

Keshav and Thara bump into each other among the crowd, and both are happy to see each other "Tara, hey..."

"Keshav, good to see you again"

"Am about to enter this Club here, you want to join?"

"Nah, sorry, not good for my ears...the loud music and noise makes my ear machine go crazy... haha"

"Oops, sorry, didn't realize that"

"But that street bar there looks a little charming, nice and cozy...if you don't mind, we both can go there"

"Sure, why not...I still have 2 more nights at Phuket to visit that Club"

As both of them sat and started gulping on their Beers, Tara enquired "So, you are travelling solo?"

"Yes, I love travelling places, preferably alone...this is my first solo venture. I am 28 and single. I want to travel as much as possible, before my parents Push me into marriage, don't know what that new person's likes and dislikes would be"

"Don't worry, you will find a nice girl and who doesn't like travelling. So, I am 40 years old and happily married to Gaurav and settled in Delhi"

"That's nice, and looks like you like solo travelling as well?"

"Yes, I am a Writer. Travelling helps me get inspired with new experiences, places, people, cultures. It helps me get ideas to write on new articles and books"

"Wow, looks exciting. I wish I got into such an interesting profession, than my boring job in the IT"

"Haha...of-course it is. So, howz your first Solo trip going?"

"Oh well, I started with 2 nights at Bangkok...it was great...then a real bad experience in the flight to Phuket" and he explains his uncomfortable experience in the flight with his upset stomach.

Both laugh out loud on his animated explanation of how terrible his situation was "No but seriously, it was bad, uncomfortable embarrassing. I was convinced that I would shit in my pants. I was so scared and afraid...one of the scariest moments in my life. How about you? Have you gone through any scary moments?"

"Thankfully, my stomach was never upset at wrong places...haha...yes, I had the scariest moment of my life 5 years ago, when I gave birth to a baby girl"

"Yes, I realize it's kinda rebirth to women, the pain they go through"

"Indeed it is. But I went through that pain with a smile, it was happy moment but not scary. As I am deaf and Gaurav is speech impaired. We were anxious to know if our could speak and head. While We had to wait for atleast 1 year to see if the baby could speak, the doctors on our insistence, deduced to conduct a test for hearing"

"Oh..I didn't know they would do that on a baby"

"Yes, they do this acoustic emission scan. They plugged lot of wires on my 1 week old baby's body and put one headset on her ears. We were asked to watch the Monitor and wait for the lines to spike.

Both of us were holding our hands tightly, scared, worried, anxious, praying to all the Gods we knew, we were shivering and staring at the monitor screen...15 minutes passed by, but the line was just flat and not even a small spike"

Tara burst into tears. Keshav caught unaware and not knowing how to react, without his knowledge his eyes were also wet. It was a very emotional moment for Tara, and Keshav had a very confused look on his face, as he just held Tara's hand tightly.

The wet eyes of Keshav, and the tightly held hands, brought Tara a sense of assurance and a feeling of brotherhood. They were emotionally connected at that moment.

After calming down and the emotionally charged moment tapered down, they both had a good time at the Bar, both drank like pigs and sloshed.

Holding shoulder to shoulder both helped themselves to hop on a tuk tuk, Keshav though in an inebriated state, ensured Tara reached her hotel safe and managed to reach his hotel room and threw himself on the bed.

Carrying on with his plans, Keshav spent the next 2 days at Phuket and visited all the places that he had planned.

Though he didn't meet Tara again in Phuket, the memories, her story and the time together became nostalgic to Keshav.

During the flight back home, sitting on the window seat, Keshav was going through a lot of emotions. His first experience travelling alone, the Tara factor, her baby, her strength to go through the pain each day of her life to see her daughter struggle like Tara does.

This trip taught him life lessons. With all happy, smiling faces around, so many have stuffed emotions and pains within us and all of us are wired to intelligently hide our pains, sorrows and give out our best smiles and positivity to the world.

Keshav discovered why he loved to travel solo - the freedom, being incharge of own decisions, being independent, deciding for the unknowns, meeting strangers, getting to know their life stories, kept him grounded and being thankful to God for the blessed life he is living.