I remember having a two hours nap next to my mother on the afternoon I was to leave my native land for Singapore to pursue my further studies. The previous night my friends were heavily startled as to how I had nothing to do 24 hours before I was to say my goodbyes to Mauritius. I replied that packing was done and that all I have to do are taking some rest, having some good food, looking great, feeling divine, making sure of some security details, and intentionally setting up a fight with my little brother just for the sake of nagging him. I was neutral about my departure; I could have been excited or sad- however, I remained passive as I closed my eyes to sleep.
My morning routine was just like any other day. I woke up, reflected on life and talked to my imaginary friends about how my maternal grandfather has constantly been reminding me of the positively high spirits in which my younger cousin had earlier left for Australia and how he wants me not to look back and simply forge ahead towards the future. Although my mother didn’t show any sadness about me moving out of home, contrary to my father, my grandparents have been fully supportive of me taking a step into foreign lands. A bit before lunch, I blogged about the things my loved ones would miss about me rather than what I would miss about them. Just before I was about to turn my laptop off, I found a mail from an astrology site in my inbox. Curiosity ended in a jolt of goose bumps when I read words that went as: “you are to rapidly re-align with your true path and begin living the life you were meant to live, since birth.” It took me by immense surprise. I’m no blind believer in astrology but there are just certain things in this science that never fail to amaze me. I was actually a natural sciences student in High School quite against my nature for I was always the person up for the social sciences and the softer skills of human life. Choosing to leave my home to come here was primarily based on the fact that I looked forward to the liberal arts foundation of the courses and offered to me the opportunity I have been waiting for all my life: travelling with a professional purpose.
Fast forwarding to post the afternoon nap, we eventually bounced out of bed and started to get ready to head to the airport. I had decided to not think much that day. Thinking leads to the synthesis of weird feelings I was sure would benefit no one emotionally in that moment. My father had rented a van so that my immediate family members could drop me to the airport. It’s almost cultural that whenever someone is going abroad for a long time, the whole family including relatives are supposed to them off to the airport. I believe this to have originated from the fact that when earlier in the 1940s people would fly from our little island to other more prosperous nations in search of a better life, there were no means to see or hear from those people for the next few months. And even though we eliminated the almost big fat-Indian-wedding-like procession to the airport, my grandparents, aunt, my brother, and parents wouldn’t all fit in a car.
Before we left home, as customs and rituals rule my dear grandmothers’ hearts, they warded off evil eyes away from me by circling a lighted lamp round my head, strengthened me by dotting my forehead, and blessed me. All of these have to do with Indian Culture, but our ancestors being from India, my grandmothers still uphold them. Had it been any other day I would have been reluctant to approve of it. I may be spiritual but I am not religious, just like my blasphemous grandfather and mother. But it was the last day I were to see them, and hence I just played along. From the corner of our eyes, my mother and I giggled at the rites. Throughout the ride, everybody was tensed up for some weird reason or probably it was just how they thought they should be morally behaving. Especially my two grandmothers who compulsorily cry at the weddings of all the girls in the family as their daughters are bidding them farewell to go dwell at their in-laws. Even when I was about to board, they were all there on the transparent terrace Airport of Mauritius had conceptualised to allow friends and relatives to see passengers boarding the plane. At that point, I did see in my mother’s eyes how hard it was going to be for her.
Once I took my seat on the plane, next to my best friend who was also joining the same tertiary institution as me, I felt more relaxed and genuinely happy that our dreams of studying and moving out together were being fulfilled. It felt tremendously unbelievable at that point in time. “The law of attraction!” we both said at the same time to explain the happy coincidence. What was awaiting us, we knew not. And then, here we are, 18 days from then, finally seeping all of it in. At that point and now all that matters is what my high school motto taught us: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.” (Les Brown)