Fremont, California

When I first got on the plane, I was thinking how boring the plane ride would be. But, to my surprise, it was great. Before we boarded the plane I was finishing up some work from school when I heard a loud voice saying that Singapore Airlines Flight SQ16 would be boarding in 5 minutes. So my mom said, "We should get going, we don’t want to be late.” So we went to the gate and waited for about few minutes and they let us board the plane.

The flight attendant greeted us while we walked into the airplane. We found our seats rather quickly and I found out that they had mini TV’s on the seats so I became very excited and also, to my surprise, the TV came with video games. I tried turning on the TV but it wouldn’t work. So I just listened to the flight attendants talk about the safety in the plane. After that we took off. My ear started hurting so much I had to stop myself from screaming. An hour later the ear piercing pain stopped and I finally learnt how to turn on the TV.

After about 12 hours of watching TV, reading, and napping, we finally got to Seoul, which is in Korea. We waited there for an hour and brushed our teeth, got something to eat, changed into different clothes, etc. We got on the same plane and took off to Singapore. My mom said I should get some rest because I had been watching TV for the whole plane ride. So I reluctantly agreed and went to sleep. I slept for 4 hours then woke up and to my surprise we were in Singapore. I thought the country was beautiful because there was not much pollution and there wasn’t any litter at all. In fact, the airport was much cleaner than SFO Airport. We waited there for about 5 hours before we left for India. We boarded Air India flight at about 6:00 am and left for Bangalore. This plane was sort of boring because there was no TV or anything else to entertain me for the 4 hour trip.

We finally made it to India!! I was so excited that I could see all my relatives again. We had to show our passports to the immigration officials, which took about 1 hour. After we left the airport and went outside I saw both my Grandparents. They were all eagerly waiting to see their grandkids. My family went home with our grandparents in one car and the luggage came in another car. When we all settled down in my grandparents' house I went right to bed since I had jetlag. Next thing I knew, it was the middle of the night, and I was in bed. I woke my mom up and asked her what time it was. She replied,“2:30 in the morning!” I was surprised to hear that it was early morning, 2:30 am already. "Oh well!" I thought and went back to sleep.

The next couple of days went by. We visited a lot of relatives from both my mom's and my dad’s side. The next day my dad took us to Tippu sultan’s palace in Bangalore. My sister was amazed at seeing this huge and wonderful building. Then we went shopping at Gandhi Bazaar which had a vast number of street hawkers all screaming at the top of their voices. Next we went to my other grandparents' house where my grandfather had already bought lots of candy even before we got there. I was very ecstatic since my parents always yell at me when I eat candy here in America. The next day my dad took us to Cubbon Park. It was fun, since we got to go on a train and we got to go on many rides. We also had ice cream there which was delicious!!!!

But time went by quickly and another week passed and we kept switching back and forth to each grandparent's house. On one of the days my dad took me to a song recording studio. I was really amazed to see how much effort it takes to just make a four-minute song. My dad also introduced me to S.P. Balasubramaniam, who is a very popular singer in South India.

Once I went shopping with my grandfather and he bought me a cricket ball and a CD-ROM. I was really happy since I like playing computer games a lot!

Anyway, the days passed and by then I had met all my cousins and relatives. The day to depart inched closer and closer. I met all the people who worked in my grandfather's office (which is on the second floor of my grandparents’ house). I met all of my parents’ aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. I basically met everyone who was my relative and lived in India.

The day came when I had to depart from India and come back to the U.S. We sadly left. My grandmother was crying and she decided not to come to the airport, saying that she was too emotional, so we got into the car and the driver drove off. It was half an hour away from my grandparents’ house so it took a while to get there. We got to the airport, checked in our luggage, and left for the plane. It was a long sad journey back to USA, but I remembered just then that I could talk to them every week after I got back to America. So I was really happy! So even to this day I talk to my grandparents every week! Hope you enjoyed my story!