An Outlet

3 June, 2017.

We're finally in Pune!

So there are a few reasons why I love coming to Pune. First of all, the prospect of going somewhere without parents interests me, what with all the 'wanting to prove to be an independent grown woman' and stuff.

Pune is where my dad's real sister, Aunt P stays. She's one of my favourite humans on this planet. Very generous, lively, positive and extremely strong. Her kids Stella and Scarlett are another set of joy! They are elder to me and I have learnt quite a lot from them. Everytime I go to Pune, it's fun! They are fun!

Also, this time around, the 6 cousins from my dad's side (which includes Alex, Parker, Pamela, Scarlett, Stella and me) were going to meet and hang out after years!

There is another reason why I was waiting for this trip. I had promised Scarlett that my first drinking experience will be with her and now that I am of age, I'm ready. I'm sure I'm not going to like the taste of alcohol but oh boy, I hope this experience is something I'll like. I've been waiting for this for so long. My parents don't know our plans yet, but I think I will let him know. He might not give me permission, but I just want him to know that I am thinking about trying out alcohol now.

So here's the day!

I woke up at fucking 5:00 AM in the morning but I didn't care cause I was so pumped for this journey. I quickly changed and finished my last minute packing. With that, Dad came to drop Alex and I at our local station. There we met up with Prarker and Pamela and went to the main station. We were quite early but that was the plan.

And then came the first hilarious incident of the day.

Alex and I had booked our tickets seperate from Parker and Pamela but still we found out that we will be traveling in the same compartment. When we were at the station in front of the desired compartment (according to Pamela), I checked my ticket again and realised that Alex and I were in the next compartment. We entered into a light hearted argument about the miscommunication.

When the train came, we two pairs got into our respective compartments. About 10 mins after the train started moving, the ticket collector told those two that they were in wrong compartment! Hahahahahaha!
It was hilarious!

The 3 hour train journey was so good!

I think I annoyed Alex by pointing at the wrong structure about 4 times before we finally saw the correct one. Throughout the journey I was continuously looking through Google Maps to know how much distance was left. I hooted through tunnels and marveled at the beauty of nature once we were on the hills. We also witnessed amusing/hilarious scenes of a short-tempered heavy woman sitting directly in front of us.

We reached Pune in about 4 hours. After that we booked a cab and when to Parker's flat. I'm not going to lie, the locality looked kinda shady. There were a lot of illegal constructions and I got a very intrusive vibe from the locals. Parker had already warned us that these people have no qualms about staring at newcomers and wanting to know every thing that didn't even include them. Thankfully no one came up to us but it was creepy nonetheless.

We settled in. Parker's apartment is quite small but it's good enough for him since he is a student there and this is not his permanent abode. It is good for one person, but 4 of us had to adjust a little. And we could see that Aunt P had made everything ready for us. We didn't have to worry about the sleeping situation. She had got us extra beddings. The place didn't have an AC, so she had placed a cooler! She's so sweet!

After a while, Aunt P, Stella and her kid Spencer came home along with our breakfast. Now Alex and I are not used to eating breakfast but it smelt so good that we had to take it. Scarlett also came after a while and we had our breakfast.

After that, Aunt P, Stella and Spencer went back to their place and till lunch time, we all played cards. It was funn! Maybe because I was winning but whatever.

Those three came back again at around 2 and we had a delicious lunch. I was so tired after that! I didn't even have the strength to impress Spencer while everyone else were trying their best to make the kid laugh.

Pamela is the one who normally sleeps in the afternoon but this time, all of us slept with her since we had woken up quite early in the morning. I was so tired that I crashed as soon as I hit the bed.

We woke up at around 5:30 in the evening, after which we got ready for an outing. We were all ready by 6:30-45 PM. We went below Aunt P's house. There we met Stella's husband. We had planned to go out for dinner. So Stella, Spencer, Aunt P, Alex and Parker went in Stella's husband's car while Scarlett, Pamela and I waited for our ride.

We somehow managed to book and cancel three rides before finally booking the final one. Our driver was pretty chill. He told us stories about how he got caught by the police one day and how his customer paid the fine instead of him. We went though the army area, which was a smart decision cause we evaded the entire traffic on the main road.

We finally reached the restaurant and oh my god did it look fancy! I'm accustomed to casual dining but this for sure was fine dining. That didn't stop us from making noise and having fun tho. It's hard not to make noise when you're with a kid, especially kids who are as naughty as Spencer. And anyways there was another family who created even more noise than us so it was cool.

The food was nice. Not the best but nice. We left for home around 11 and reached home at about 11:45 PM. We played with Spencer, that bundle of joy, for a while and then Aunt P, Spencer, Stella and Scarlett went home.

It's 12:45 AM now. Pamela has gone to sleep but Alex, Parker and I just finished having a deep conversation which revolved around why Aunt P gets the food to our place instead of us going to theirs. There is a not-so-good family history behind all of this which dates back to when our parents were young. Honestly, I cannot even imagine what went through everyone's mind at that time. I cannot imagine what is going on in Aunt P's mind now. I always saw her as a happy go lucky and  a super super helpful person but I never thought about the things she must have through in her life or what she is still going through.

My Aunt is so strong. So strong. I love and respect her so much. She does so much for others inspite of her own big serious problems. I got to know so many things, so many misunderstandings. A lot of things make sense now.

I now know why my parents insisted on not letting us know. I only know 10% about the situation but it has affected me so much. I cannot control my emotions, cannot stop crying. I didn't even go through any of it but I still feel so so bad.

Afterall, dealing with abusive husbands is never an easy task.