How I ruined my family road trip
It was a normal day. Everyone went about their work. I had just returned from school, and sat down for lunch.
My mother came and said, “What would you think about a trip to the mountains with nani, nanu and CS”
(CS = cousin sister, she was a couple years old at the time. Nani, nanu is maternal grandmother and grandfather respectively.)
My reaction was quite a thing. In simple terms, I am sorry to the people who heard ape-like hollering and stomping steps in the floor below. I couldn’t believe it. I asked her for the details.
Turns out, we were planning to go on a short trip to the mountains of Himachal. There was a Gurudwara we were going to visit. Gurudwaras are like churches, but for Sikhs. I can explain more about Gurudwaras and the place we were visiting, but Google does it better.
It was still just a plan, the actual trip was still doubtful.
After a few days everyone had forgotten about the plan, we (Me and my little brother.) came back from the playground, it was evening, and summer. We were sipping our Lemonade (Nimboo-Paani) when our parents (Who had gone for a walk) called. I picked up the phone:
Mom: Wo jo tecchi hai na, blue wali, usko nikal ke, bhaiya ko safai karne ke liye bol dena. (Translation: Get the blue suitcase out, and tell bhaiya to clean it.)
Me: Waaaait, is this what I think this is?
Mom: Maybe it is. Just do it quickly.
*Click*
So, I suddenly remembered about the plan, and I knew it, this was happening. Next happens episode two of ape-like hollering and dancing. It was my, and my family’s first time travelling through the night. I told dadi (Paternal grandmother) about the call. She didn’t believe me at first. I finally convinced her and that was it.
I was hyped about the trip, the game plan was something like this (I can’t remember the details this event happened a few years ago):
- We were first to Punjab to pick up my grandparents and CS. We were living in New Delhi at the time.
- Once there, we were to surprise them by appearing early in the morning; for that, we had to leave Delhi at night.
- We would stay there for a couple days then take them with us to the mountains.
- A few days’ journey, we would stay in different places. Since my dad is in the Army we can live in different army lodgings.
- Once we reached the final destination, we would stay there for a few days and then go back to our village in Punjab and say bye to our companions.
- Then we were to go back to New Delhi and continue with our lives.
I’ll spare you the details of what else happened that night, we basically just ate dinner, mom dad returned from their walk, and we began rushed packing. I was watching Netflix since I knew by the time we were back from the trip the subscription would have ended. That was perhaps the only sad part about the trip. Or so I thought…
We left the house in our Tata Hexa.
The journey through the night was uneventful as expected. I stayed up for most of the night, even as my brother slept. We arrived early in the morning, and I was sleepy, not just me but everyone. My brother was pretty much refreshed since he slept most of the journey, but even he was exhausted, the “Adults” drank tea, and we all went to sleep.
Here’s where the problems started.
Scene: About 10 AM, I had just finished my glass of milk and went out in the yard, to where the rest of my family was sitting. We ate something called Aloo parantha (Potato filled bread)
Me to my mother, “My stomach hurts.”
Mom replied with, “It’s probably because of the Paranthas.”
“Yeah, probably.”
This conversation happened in Hindi, but for simplicity’s sake, I have translated it.
So we all ignored the pain. It continued hurting, and I was getting more and more annoyed with it. It hurt somewhere near the right side of the abdomen area. In the evening I had had enough. I said it still hurts and my mother told me, “Well, that’s distressing, it’s still hurting?”
Somehow I spent the evening and it was time to sleep, since my pain was getting worse, my parents decided that I should sleep with them, in case it worsened. Oh boy, it did worsen and then some.
Middle of the night, and I suddenly have high fever, moving hurts, and I can barely open my eyes.
Here’s a quick summary of what happened next:
Mom worried, dad asking me multiplication questions (Cuz hey, you know your son is very sick when he can’t solve the questions. Thing is, I did, but I was still very sick haha.), in the end they applied wet cloth on my forehead (for the fever) and took turns checking me.
So the night ended. That was a nightmare. But it gets worse, in the morning the pain’s there, I took a paracetamol to help with the pain. The fever had gone away for now. I suffered the whole day, and in the afternoon, I was getting feverish again. Then I puked. Once, twice, thrice. Mom was worried, and they took me to the local village doctor. He gave me some sort of medicine (Can’t remember which).
Came back to the house, and fell asleep.
We did go to a bigger clinic and the doctor there said it was some sort of minor problem or something. Nothing big. I wasn’t so sure but kept quiet.
Mom and dad were planning to end the trip. Unfortunately I was very dumb, and I wanted to see the mountains, wow I regret that. I started to hide my pain, and it was slowly getting better, so I thought, “Hey, it’s getting better, maybe I can hide it even more, then we can continue with the trip.” Mom and dad weren’t sure, but eventually it was decided that we would continue.
So we did.
Next few days were spent in AGONY as the pain worsened. I was not getting feverish, it was just the pain. My parents knew I was hurting, but I kept pressing on to continue the trip. We reached the final destination. By now the pain was so bad that I couldn’t even walk. It. hurt. to. walk.
The valleys, and peaks, and the rushing rivers. Everything was a breathtaking sight. I couldn’t enjoy any of it.
This is what the gurudwara looks like:
There were hot water springs there as well. Anyways, we were there.
We had planned so much for the trip. So many activities, interesting things. Nothing could be done. I wanted to enjoy the trip, but I knew this was not right. We had to return before my condition worsened even. more.
We decided to leave the next morning, now this was becoming an emergency, my appetite went down to nil. Early in the morning we left. Now the plan was to leave my maternal grandparents back at the house, but time was a resource we couldn’t waste. So we decided to plough through the 15 HOURS OF AGONY. I couldn’t eat anything, I somehow managed to eat a burger (trust me nothing else was going down my throat). We arrived at about 11 PM. Went straight to the ER of a major Army hospital. They took blood tests and attached a cannula in case I needed to be hospitalized the next day.
The doctor was unsure of what it could be. We left the hospital praying it wasn’t something bad, and I wouldn’t have to be admitted.
What a joke.
Next day we came back to get me checked. We had to wait for a looong time before my turn came. The doctor checked, pressed a few areas. Then took me to a more specialized doctor to check. Oh my god I was nervous as heck. The doctor suspected it was appendicitis.
Bam mic drop, I was almost hoping for the punchline of the joke. It wasn’t a joke.
Luckily my condition wasn’t that bad yet. They had me admitted, and I was kept under observation for the next few days, I wasn’t allowed to eat or drink. Why? Because I could’ve needed an emergency operation at any point of time. That was scary. So I was kept alive through IV. My mother on the other hand got to eat food. Trust me, even though I never felt hunger (magic IV) or thirst, looking at actual food, and remembering the tastes was bad. Mom looked guilty at times haha. A few of our acquaintances came to meet me, one of them brought a nice big bar of chocolate, oh the irony.
My best friend came to visit as well, and I was allowed to eat just a little bit of chocolate with him. Just a little bit. Eventually I got better in a few days and went home.
Such a nice and lovely trip. Ruined by my own stupidity and bad luck.
Anyways, so that was how I ruined my family road trip.
TL;DR I got sick with appendicitis, and survived to tell the tale another day.
