How to flash through seven places in eighteen days

Somebody once travelled around the world in eighty days. I did something better. I travelled seven places in eighteen days and managed to do some sight-seeing and family-bonding as well as a great deal of joy-sharing as well in those eighteen days. How did I do it?

1. Spent the first day and most of the next morning watching the Konkan coast from the window of a train. Reading why school teachers are like sumo wrestlers, why drug dealers live in their mothers' homes, why crime rates fell in the United States in the nineties, and how exactly, with statistical proof, does parental care affect children. And listening to Incubus alongside.
   
2. Spent the afternoon of the second day lazing idly in the garden of a little house in a tiny village.
   
3. Spent the third day roaming with family on the beaches nearby. And took some beautiful pictures all the way.
   
4. Spent most of the fourth in a six hour bus journey from the village to another little town, escorted by a favourite cousin, and was met by a whole host of cousins, aunts and uncles who hadn't seen me in three years.
   
5. Spent the fifth day in a grand birthday session, the first time I celebrated my birthday with my dad's people. Starting with furious session of midnight callers, a visit to the temple in the morning after bathing (normal for some but astounding for those who know I'm a stubborn atheist. But some things have to be done to please people too, at times), a humongous lunch in which I stuffed myself so full I could have gone the entire month without eating, and a surprise birthday party, which included amongst other wild whacky unexpected things: me wearing a saree for it (again, some things have to be done to please people), a green birthday cake (incidentally, the same colour and flavour I had for my first birthday), two weeks' worth of newspapers shredded to bits as confetti, lollipops and a bright pink squeeze toy as part of the gifts package, me lighting with a cigarette lighter the same candles that I blew out on my cake, and a special photo session with my paternal relatives surrounding me on all sides. Could I have asked for anything more?
6. Spent the sixth day visiting my dad's sisters. Everywhere I go, I'm treated like a little princess.
   
7. Spent the seventh day visiting more relatives. And also found the means to see the college where my dad studied as a youngster of my age.
   
8. Spent the eighth and ninth days in one of the most dynamic cities one could hope to live in. And found out that my cousin sister, who so staunchly disapproved of all notions of falling in love and things of that sort, was seeing someone. And it's a serious relationship with indications of being something really, really long term. The guy is seriously good, too. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a younger brother or cousin who I could hit on. :P
9. Spent the tenth and eleventh days in the house of a gentleman who was earlier a professor in an IIT, and now Professor Emeritus in the university where he served as Principal and Dean for so many years now. And finally understood some aspects of my stickier subjects from him. I happen to have taken the same course of study he did in his college days.
10. Spent the next six days in my grandfather's house. In a suburb in another huge city. And what days those were. Spent the first day sleeping all day and waking up to wish everyone festive greetings for the holiday season.
    
11. Spent the next day with a family of cousins, in their house that cost them ten millions to build, with a garden that gave life to every seed thrown into it, and an approach road that for five kilometers (no less) threatened to shake the traveller off his vehicle, as though traversing that road were a crime of the highest order.
    
12. Spent a lazy day playing games. Then received the terrifying news of the execution of the last step of a regular series of torturous college events. During the reception of which I received the even more horrendous news of the assassination of one of the most powerful leaders of a neighbouring country - a woman who had once been the Premier of her country, against all odds and opposed to all kinds of perverted forces. She fell to their cowardly yet ruthless attack.
    
13. Spent the fourth day roaming around one of the busiest sections of Chennai. A street so full of people it's a crime for a vehicle to be driven there. Wondered yet again, for the umpteenth time, how so many gold and jewelry shops manage to set up such huge mall-sized shopping complexes next door to one another and still maintain business that sustains them. Ditto for the silks, the vessels, the clothes and the sweets. Bought a complete set of newspapers on the way back, which contained altogether four puzzles of a particular game that I favour. And all four puzzles a very hard level! Broke my brains trying to solve them :( Finally managed one out of four.
    
14. Spent the next day with my mother's friend from her own hostel days. A bright dynamic lady who doesn't deserve all the crap that she's going through right now. The best was hearing her and my mom come alive again as though they were young twenty-somethings, yet with all their experience and maturity to back them up and protect them. A close second was hearing all the naughty things my mom did in her younger days, and which she so routinely scolds me for doing myself! And managed to get a second puzzle at night.
    
15. Spent the day packing. And still trying to solve those damned puzzles. I think I overdosed myself. And I discovered one more messaging partner.
    
16. Spent the morning in the flight back home. Solved one more damn puzzle in the morning right before the flight left. Surfed the net the rest of the day at home.
    

And all along I discovered a new joy in travelling and meeting people, especially those who love you, and how important it is to keep up those links. Everyone needs something special to keep their minds occupied, and sometimes, it's just as well that you be the source, rather than the seeker, of that something special.