Before The World Flipped Upside Down

3 friends went on a quick trip. It was an extended-weekend kind of a trip. The respective husbands were either lackadaisical of their choice of destination or pooh-poohed it outright but these three were firm on a place and there they went!

The families were semi-cautious about them traveling at a time when Covid was gradually becoming a buzzword but no one knew then what we know now how things would become. Back then it was meant to be a quick but not hurried trip, with like-minded people, to a place which has something for everyone and it was also meant to give ourselves a break from our families and day-to-day and give them a break from us in the bargain.

In a nutshell? We had a GREAT time! We walked, talked, ate well, drank in sights, admired architecture, caught up with old pals, slept in beds without any smaller bodies smooshing in with us or stealing the sheets in the middle of the night. We walked back to our accommodation after midnight; a bit wary but knowing that this is the city that never sleeps. We danced, we club-hopped. We looked for paan with a vigor bordering on the obsessive and (re)discovered a city that everyone seems to know a lot about but doesn’t always know well.

And because it was a trip where not a whole lot of expectations were pinned on, we had a better time than we expected. It was perfect in its own way. And it helped in weathering the lockdown that followed almost immediately after our return.

What’s the moral of the story? NEVER underestimate a mother’s wish to put some distance between herself and her kid(s). Albeit lovingly.