by Ayan Mishra

Hi, my name is Ayan Mishra. I am 11 years old and live in Shrewsbury with my mom and dad. I am going to start the 7th grade this September. I am an avid swimmer and like to play basketball and tennis.

Today I will be talking about my trip to India. During quarantine my parents and I really wanted to go to India but we couldn't because of the new variant and all of the Covid cases. In November 2021, we decided to go in December during my Christmas break, however we couldn’t because my dadima fell sick and only my dad could go visit her. We then finally decided to go to India in April from the 7th to the 23rd. When I got to the airport, I was really excited. We reached the airport 3 hours before the flight and we were at the gate for 2 hours. We were in boarding group 3. When we got on the plane, I immediately looked at the screen and saw what movies the flight had. They had all my favorite movies and I watched 7 movies. The flight took 18 hours to go from Boston to Doha. At Doha, I met my cousin, Prisha, and bua, they were traveling the same day to India, but had boarded the plane from New York. She was also going to New Delhi and was on my flight. Her seat was much behind me. The flight from Doha to India was very short and flew by fast. 3 ½ hours after we left, the Pilot finally announced, “We have landed in Delhi, India”. We went into the airport, said goodbye to my cousin, grabbed our bags and left. When I went outside, I immediately started sweating. It was 90 degrees at 2am! We got in a taxi and drove for an hour to my Dadu’s home in Gurugram. I was so excited to meet him after 2 years!

We got to my Dadu’s home at 3 in the morning and stayed awake the whole day. For breakfast we had Paneer Pakoras, some yummy jalebis from a famous shop and chips. To avoid jetlag, we then thought of stepping out and very quickly the day became sooo boring because I had to go shopping with my parents. One exciting part of the day is that we also went to Pizza Hut and tried some Paneer Tikka Pizza. It was delicious!

The next afternoon we went to my Nanu and Nani’s house in Faridabad. I was so excited to meet them after 3 and a half years! Before we left, I had asked my Nani to make Chole Bhature for lunch. She made it and it was amazing! We stayed there in the evening and I had so much fun catching up with my Nani and Nanu. The next morning, we woke up early and my Nani and Nanu took us to see the Red Fort, Rashtrapati Bhavan, India Gate, Connaught place and South-ex which is one of the posh areas in Delhi. At South-ex, my mom and Nani bought some things for the wedding (I will talk about this later).

In the afternoon, we got hungry, so we went to a McDonalds and ate this amazing aloo tikki burger. I have had that burger multiple times and that is my favorite burger. We then continued driving around and seeing a few more places before we headed back home.

We decided to take it easy the next day, and my Nanu showed me a great show called Race to The Center of The Earth. We watched the show till the afternoon and had our little discussions while watching it. We then went to a glasses shop where they made a pair of glasses for me in just 15 minutes, I was impressed! After getting my glasses my mom and Nani wanted to go buy some clothes. They dragged me and my Nanu along. After 3-4 hours of shopping, we all decided that it was too hot and we went to get some Vadilal Ice Cream. When we got back, we were all tired and we immediately slept.

In the morning of the next day we headed to my Dadu’s home because my mom had to do some work for a village school. My mom is part of an organization called Sewa International. My mom is a part of their SHE program (sanitation, hygiene and empowerment of the girl child). She went to a village school to create awareness about hygiene and importance of education for girls. The SHE program also helps in building clean toilets in schools for girls. After our trip to the village, in the evening my cousins Aadi and Vinayak came over and we chatted and had a lot of fun. Vinayak said “that was the most English I have ever said in a conversation”. They only came over for 3 hours though, I wish they stayed longer. On the other hand, the next day when we went back to my Nanu and Nani’s home a lot of my cousins came over, though only one of them was my age. His name was Aarav. We played a lot of video games. Over the weekend, my mom's school friends also came over, they have been together for 25 years now, and one of them had a son also named Aarav. We played some video games at first and then built a tank out of Legos.

After that we went shopping to prepare for one of my mom's cousins' weddings. My mom bought a fancy wedding dress and my Nani wore so much jewelry. I also bought a fancy kurta and vest. At 4:30AM we took a taxi to the train station which was an hour away. When we got to the train station it took us 40 minutes to get in because of the huge crowds. We finally got on the train, which was going to Jalandhar, where the wedding took place. It was my first time on an Indian train and I was so excited. It was a great ride. The train moved really fast and there were a lot of people on the train, everybody had a seat though. I didn’t eat much on the train because I am not used to the outside food there and I didn’t want to get sick.

When we got to Jalandhar, we had a chauffeur waiting for us to drive us to the wedding venue. When we got to the resort our chauffeur took our bags and we went downstairs to attend the Haldi Rassam. The food there was delicious! After 2-3 hours of meeting relatives and clicking some photos, we went to our rooms. My Nani and Nanu had one and me, my mom and my dad had another room. We relaxed and slept in our rooms until it was time for the Shaadi. There were at least 200 different dishes in the buffet. I tried maybe 4 or 5 of them, but the chole bhature were the best ones though. I went back to my room at 11pm, 1 hour before the shaadi ended. When we woke up we went to the breakfast room, ate a quick meal and left to go to Amritsar.

We got to Amritsar at 11am. We went to the Golden Temple where we had to take off our shoes. The ground was so hot that it burned my feet even though I had walked on the carpet and dipped my feet in water every few seconds. The Golden Temple was beautiful. After we went to the Golden Temple I started to feel sick from the heat. I had a cold Limca but what I really wanted was water. We then went to Jallianwala Bagh where the British massacred innocent Indians who were enjoying their day. Some Indians jumped in a well but the British shot them too. Jallianwala Bagh had one entrance/exit which the British had blocked off so the Indians couldn’t escape. There were no survivors and barely any British casualties.

I was then really getting sick and almost threw up. Mom finally called the driver and I jumped in the car and drank two bottles of water. We asked the driver to then take us to a famous Chole Kulche shop in Amritsar for lunch. We had them while sitting in the car in the AC, since it was boiling outside! This shop was famous and their food was delicious! We then came back to the station to take the train back home. I didn't eat anything on the train except 2 ice creams. When we got home, I immediately slept because I was tired from the travel and the heat. In the morning I said goodbye to my Nanu and Nani and we headed back to Gurugram for the last few days.

The last few days were about shopping, running around, getting our covid tests done, and somewhat relaxing. I did fall sick the last two days of our trip, but my Nanu’s friend, doctor nanu, helped me with some medicines and I was able to take the flight home.

When we got back I was most excited to meet (guess who), Muffin! She was so excited to meet us and more excited to come home. My trip to India was great with some new experiences of traveling by the train and visiting two new cities! My parents and I really enjoyed it.

I hope you enjoy it reading it. Thank you for reading!