An Outlet

27 December, 2016.

It's my Birthday!

I'm one of those people who get very excited on their birthday. Not from the celebration point of view but because of the inner feeling of turning a year older and the day being my day. And my brother Alex's. We're twins. We don't mind sharing our birthday with each other.

I mentioned before that none of my friends have really surprised me for my birthday, but now that I think about it, I know why.

I've spent all my birthdays with my family and I've loved it. I've never thrown a party or invited my friends for treats. I had made a promise to myself that I'd celebrate my birthday with my family till 10th grade (15th birthday) and after that, I'd celebrate it with my friends. I wasn't in town for my 16th (which I wasn't happy about) and our 12th Boards preparation pretty much consumed my 17th Birthday.

Which brings me to today, my 18th Birthday! Even if I don't feel like one, I'm finally an adult! So this year, I have friends in my life and there's no crucial exam coming up. So what was all that pre-birthday celebration about?

I'm off to Hyderabad for a 5 day trip. My idea.

Since the past few months, I've been thinking about what I wanted to do for my birthday this year. I primarily wanted it to be with friends but there were a few complications.

First of all, Alex and I share birthdays. We always celebrate it together. So if I called my friends over, he'd have to call his too and his friends... well, let's just say their idea of 'partying' is a little different than what I had in mind.

If it was only going to be my friends then I was thinking of inviting them over to my second house which is outside the city. But transportation would be a problem because none of us know how to drive yet and I'm not going an extra mile to hire a mini bus. So that plan couldn't work.

Also, I have been to a couple of birthday treats this year and I've realised that having all friend circles together is not exaclty a great idea. Apart from a little small talk, there's nothing much to talk about and the birthday person has to divide their time among different friend circles. I have a couple of friends from school, a couple from junior college, a couple from senior college and a few childhood ones. Honestly, I didn't want all these friend circles to meet one another.

So what's the best way to avoid all of this? Run away, flee the city. And that's what I'm doing.

I spoke to Alex, he didn't mind it. I spoke to my parents, dad suggested Hyderabad. I created the interary, dad booked everything and now we're off. I couldn't be any happier.

Since last year, I have become fascinated with travelling. So I was really excited to go to Hyderabad today. So as soon as we all got ready, we went to the airport. This time, I paid close attention to the proceedings at the airport because I have a feeling I'll have to travel alone in the near future. We waited in the waiting hall for sometime and then boarded the plane.

Today, for the first time, my seat was right beside the emergency door. I got pissed when the airhostess kept asking me if I'd be able to open the door if needed. Woman, I told you I'm 18. Even if I'm short, I have brains and I'm strong!

Anyways, we landed at Hyderabad and booked a cab to go to our hotel.

Now since we had done our bookings pretty late, there weren't any rooms available in the main city hotel till 30th. So for the first three days, we had to reside in a hotel 40km away from Hyderabad city. I was okay with it cause my adventure side was like 'Yes! We'll get to see something more than Hyderabad now!' and the online pictures of the hotel were good too.

But when we reached the said place, it was a classic example of Expectation vs Reality.

First of all, the place is in a secluded area, away from any human civilization. It looks like we are the only customers here because there were legit no visitors in sight. Nothing looks maintained. We were under the impression that the hotel would have a taxi service to the city but nope, nothing. Dad had to arrange something himself.

Secondly, we had to wait for a long time to get our rooms. We had booked two AC rooms next to each other and they told us that the two rooms were on different floors. All other rooms were occupied. Wut? The hotel looked practically empty! How could it be full?! Anyways, they later told us that a family would be leaving in an hour and we could occupy that room after they left. Three hours later I (embarrassingly) knocked on the room, thinking there were the cleaning ladies inside. Turns out, the family hadn't left yet. Exciting start to my Birthday in Hyderabad.

Eventually, we got our rooms and it was nothing like we imagined. Broken couch and everything. Alex and my room was better than my parents' tho.

It was about 3:00 PM and we reluctantly decided to eat lunch at the hotel itself because we were practically in the middle of nowhere. Expectantly, the food sucked.

But honestly, even after all these unfortunate events happened to us, I was looking at the positive side of everything. And oddly enough, I was kinda enjoying our misery. But my dad wasn't having it. He felt sorry and guilty that Alex and I had to spend our 18th birthday like this. We assured him that it was alright but he was adamant about doing something for us.

And so he called for a car and told us to get ready. We were going to the city. It wasn't the original plan. We were going to start our city adventures tomorrow but hey, it's my birthday!

Dad wasn't ready to disclose where we were going so I decided to wear my planned birthday outfit: Red full sleeved crop top, short black skater skirt and a pair of boots. I looked hot. I thought we were just going to a fancy restaurant.

We landed up at a theme park.

One more fact about me. I absolutely hate being overdressed. Yes, I was happy with the surprise but more than that, I was annoyed at the fact that I was wearing an outfit too fancy for the place we were in. I don't like being the centre of attraction and that was what I became. At least that's what I think.

For the first 45 mins I was really in a bad mood (during which we stood in a lazer show line and eventually decided to go somewhere else). But then my out-of-place outfit grew on me and I was having quite a good time. We went on a boat ride on the lake and it was amazing! Considering the fact that I'm petrified of water bodies, it was really fun! Probably because it was quite dark. The colour changing statue in the middle of the lake looked cool too.

After that, we just strolled around during which Alex got wet in the artificial waterfall, we watched a couple of rides and made fun of people's screams. It was fun.

Later, we went to this really popular restaurant and had the most delicious Hyderabadi food! After dinner, we took some family pictures and left that amazing restaurant. I was absolutely freezing by the time we came out of the restaurant but I guess it was more to do with my not so covered outfit.

We've come back to our majestic hotel and I'm quite tired. I'm excited for tomorrow tho. I can feel it's going to be a great day.

Today was one roller coaster of a day. Definitely one of my most memorable birthdays. Thank you parents for celebrating my birthday with me one more year!

And Happy 18th to Alex and I!