Going on vacations had been a part of our relationship since we started seeing each other… After all, we did meet each for the first time, almost 4 years ago, while we were on vacation in Goa for New Year’s with completely different sets of friends.
This happened last year, when we had been on 7 holidays already. And it was still only October! Yes, I’m counting weekend getaways here too, but hey, while he worked for himself, I still had a boss who I needed to approve my leaves. Anyway, we had not gone anywhere for almost 2 months, my suitcase and my boyfriend had both started to feel a bit neglected, so we sat down to plan a slightly different type of trip.
‘There’s no way in hell you’re taking me camping with you’, I said for the 435th time in the span of 4 years.
‘But this is a luxury tent, jaan. You’ll love it. We’ll be living in the middle of a desert but with every convenience you can begin to imagine.’
Let’s just say, I wasn’t convinced.
But he knew how to work around my displeasure by now, and a week later we had made all the bookings and were headed to Rajasthan, for a two day stay at a luxury tent resort.
‘I swear, if there are insects, I will eat you alive.’ The whole drive there had been just me, talking his ear off about how terrible things could turn out to be. As you can tell, I am not a nature person. This was not my idea of a holiday!
When we reached later that evening, I was relieved to see it wasn’t as bad as I had made it out to be in my head. Sure, yes, we were still living in a tent, but it had a proper working bathroom, clean linens, electricity, the works.
‘You see now? You were worried for nothing!’ Of course he had to gloat. And since he had technically been right, I let him. For 5 minutes, at least.
There was a campfire at night and all the residents came out to have dinner there. That’s where we got to know our neighbors… A rowdy bunch of men in their mid twenties who were there to just blow off some steam.
Yash mostly replied to all the questions they asked us, and we shared glances every time the topics got a bit uncomfortable. Oh, we’re not married? Wow, do our parents know? Are you getting married? No? Wow, so modern. Do you live together also? Do you plan on getting married?
And you thought women were obsessed with weddings? Huh. Odd!
We headed to our room as soon as we finished our starters and started drinking there. We got nicely buzzed, the dinner completely forgotten, and started making out soon. Yash had taken my bra off and was just lowering me onto the bed when we heard really loud laughter! I jumped a bit by how close it sounded…then realized that no matter how awesome it was to have running water, it was still a tent we were living in and literally no sound got barred by those thin fabric walls.
Those guys next door had moved the party back to their tent and were busy cursing at each other in Hindi, English and maybe some Punjabi too. And they were generally being really, really loud. Obviously, not a very romantic setting, which Yash had realized by now as well.
‘Let’s just try and sleep for a few hours and we’ll check out tomorrow morning. There’s a really beautiful fort 15 mins away and they have so many rooms available.’ He was on his phone already, checking a hotel booking app. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Arre, you couldn’t have known this will be bachelor central! Any other time, it would have been a perfect getaway. And I love you okay. Chill.’ I got changed into my pajamas, got into bed, cuddled up to him under the blanket and we let the curses lull us to sleep…
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