Hiren Deliwala
By Hiren Deliwala
Last month I wrote about travel FOMO, that weird pressure to have a good answer when someone asks where you’ve been. This month I want to talk about the part of travel nobody really talks about. Not the destinations, the chaos that starts before we even leave the house.
For many of us, travel is excitement with a checklist running in the background the whole time. Where is my charger? Did I pack the power bank? Is my passport in the bag or is it still on the counter? My bag is always stuffed, food, a jacket, cables, snacks, documents, and whatever else my brain decided was essential at eleven the night before.
My family has learned to ignore my “before we leave” drama. They have also learned that most of my alarms are false. “Where is my phone?” Right there, in the side pocket where I put it and immediately forgot.
The thing is, I have never actually missed a flight. Never shown up on the wrong day. And yet I still don’t trust myself. So, I put systems in place, timers, double checking everything, checking the gate twice, mentally running through what I’ll do if something goes wrong. Even when everything is fine, my brain still thinks something is going to go wrong.
Then there is the packing. I pack like I am preparing for a famine, not a vacation. Protein bars. So many protein bars. What if there’s nothing vegetarian on the flight? What if we get stuck somewhere? It’s ridiculous. I know it’s ridiculous. I pack them anyway. And yet somehow, I will show up to an outdoor trip without hiking boots.
I once spent a rainy day in the wrong shoes because I didn’t think I’d need a rain jacket either. The protein bars made it. The practical stuff did not.
Then there is the planning itself. My wife’s approach is straightforward, let’s just get it done. Mine is, too much work, let’s do it some other time. This works fine until some other time is two weeks before the trip and half the good hotels are gone.
We do plan together, eventually. But too many options have a way of wearing one person down until they just start making calls to move things along. Sometimes that person is me. Sometimes it is her. Either way, someone ends up owning the spreadsheet and carrying the stress for both of us. And when we leave things too late it shows.
I have booked hotels that looked fine online and turned out to be far from everything, more cabs, more time, more money spent fixing a decision we rushed. The trip still happened. It just had extra headaches built into it from the start.
Sometimes things go wrong in bigger ways. On a trip to Machu Picchu, my phone got pickpocketed on day one. First day. Crowded public transport, perfect situation for a pickpocket. My wife was kind about it. My friends were not. They had jokes for the rest of the trip. Things like, “We’d love to reach Hiren, but you know how that goes.” I earned it.
The following year my actual travel goal had nothing to do with sightseeing. It was to not get my phone stolen again. Every busy street, every market, every metro, I was tapping my pocket constantly, as if the phone might disappear if I stopped checking. My wife helped by reminding me several times a day, front pocket. It’s love. It’s also a daily inspection.
I briefly tried a lanyard. I lasted maybe twenty minutes before putting it away. There are limits. In the end, my phone had a great trip. I spent mine checking my pockets and developing a new respect for the front zip.
The point is, we figured it out. Wrong shoes, wrong hotel, a phone that went on its own adventure, we got through all of it. Because after all the checklist nonsense and protein bars and planning stress, the trip actually starts. Open water that makes you feel small, in a good way. A market where you have no idea what anyone is saying but somehow you figure it out.
A rooftop somewhere with a coffee or a drink in hand, no agenda, just watching a city go about its evening. That’s the part that makes you forget the planning headache. That’s the part you carry home. Travel is messy and stressful, and sometimes it’ll steal your phone on day one. But it also makes you feel alive.
You see things that remind you that life is bigger than whatever was on your to-do list last week. And for that, I’ll keep packing the protein bars, and maybe next time the hiking boots too.
Hiren Deliwala is a Charlotte-based overthinker, closet philosopher, and avid board gamer. He writes about everyday life, Indian upbringing, and finding humor in the chaos. When not philosophizing over chai, he’s usually losing arguments to his wife and, shockingly, learning from them. Contact: hcdeliwala@gmail.com
