They met each other on a trip and found an instant connection.
Sparks flew with every touch and they fell together with every glance.
But what happens when its time to wake up from the perfect dream?
I revelled in the foreign air as I stepped off the flight. I smiled thinking of the sheer amount of secrets that this place held. Egypt was history at its finest, and here I was, about to venture into its depths. I looked back at my Grandma, who seemed to be in a discussion with her friend.
I smiled at the two elderly ladies, thinking just how amazing they were. We were a humble Indian family that lived comfortably enough. Then there was my Grandma who had always been ahead of her time and an adventurer at heart. Right after she retired from her job, she decided to spend her savings to travel the world. She had already ticked Europe and America off her list. For her third venture, she picked Egypt.
In all of her travels, her friend Bibha Karmakar, had been her companion. She was younger than my Grandma by a few years and worked as a Scientist in the field of Anthropology in Indian Statistical Institute. My Grandma had gotten acquainted with her while she worked a desk job at the same Institute. Throughout the years they'd remained fast friends and later they turned into travel buddies.
This time around, my Grandma decided to take me along, on their trip to Egypt. I couldn't have been happier when she announced it. As a child, Egypt had always intrigued me and now here I was, standing on that very soil on my very first trip abroad.
"Grandma lets go... we gotta find the tour bus too!"
"Yeah you're right honey... come on then Bibha lets move"
We walked out of the Airport and found a guy from our touring agency waiting for us with a placard. He greeted us and led us to the tour bus. We knew that we were going to be touring with a group of people from different parts of India. When we got on the Bus we saw quite a few foreigners as well. Our first stop was Alexandria so that's where we had landed.
A few minutes passed when our tour coordinator got on the bus and faced us.
"Welcome to Alexandria, Egypt guys, I'm Sanjeev and I'll be coordinating the trip... now while we make it to the hotel, let's all get to know each other... so if you guys could please come up to the front one by one and tell us your name and where you're from... let's start with the front row come on up Sir" he asked, gesturing to a middle aged man wearing a nice turban, sitting in the front row of the bus.
"Hello everyone, my name is Siddhu Singh and I'm from Punjab, India, great to meet you all..."
After him everyone went one by one, in order of their seats. There was Mr and Mrs Agarwal who were also from Punjab, and a fairly big group of people from Bangalore.
We were also joined in Egypt by a Bengali family much like ourselves, who were actually acquaintances of Grandma's friend Bibha. They were a nice family of three and the Son was only a year older than me.
My turn came soon enough and I went up to the front a bit nervously. I had always had a bad case of stage fright which never helped in situations like this. But I decided to suppress my nerves and spoke as confidently as I could.
"Hey people, my name's Pearl Dey and I'm from Kolkata, India and I'm here with my grandma, I'm looking forward to spending time with you guys..." I said.
Just as I was about to get back into my seat, one of the American guys spoke up, "What's up with that name though? Don't Indians usually have names that are in Indian languages?"
I looked up at the smirking blond and smiled.
"That's awfully presumptuous of you... but no, really we just go for meanings rather than languages while naming kids like most people in the world..."
The smirk dropped from blondie's face while his dark haired friend beside him chuckled. Right after me, it was time for the foreigners to introduce themselves.
A dark skinned, African-American guy introduced himself as Tyson and said he was here with three of his friends from school.
Right after Tyson, there was Nigel, who was technically from Mexico but, he had shifted to New York with his parents when he was little.
Then came blondie, who's name I learnt was Sam and the final person from their group was Aiden. I had to admit, they were a handsome group of guys. I was particularly taken by Aiden and even more so when I heard his voice. I felt myself blushing a bit when Aiden smiled at me before taking a seat.
I looked out of the window as the city zoomed past me. I was excited to say the least, to see how the rest of the trip would go.
