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Mandeep Kaur Sidhu

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Original Writing GCSE Assignment

My brother, Ricky, sister, Amrit and I had only found out a week before, that we were just about to be whisked away to a foreign country we hadn't set in for seven years, and seven years before that. We would be staying there for a whole month, so as you can imagine, we were taken aback, yet somewhat sceptic, as we'd always heard our parents mentioning a trip to India for a few months, but never actually believed they would go to the bother of booking the tickets. After all, my mother had only taken my now 5-year-old sister to see her family there four years ago. My immediate concern was language. I can read and write my mother tongue, and understand what people are telling me, but wasn't very good at speaking back. I think this pleased my parents, they thought it would be good for us, as they knew we would have to start learning to talk in our mother tongue Punjabi.

It wasn't really difficult to prepare for the trip, well not for me anyway. All I had to do was make sure I had a holiday form, homework and suitcase packed. However, my poor parents had to sort out the passports, visas, currency, jabs (ouch) and house security while we were away. I didn't really tell my friends until the last minute, as I was expecting a cancellation, change in plan or even told I'd been set up and it was all a joke. I was actually a little annoyed with my parents for not booking during school holidays, not because I'd miss school, only the workload I'd have to catch up on. But once they explained that they couldn't get a holiday the same time as us, I felt quite sorry for them. When I think back to it, I was actually disappointed that we were going to India, instead of Canada in the summer, which is where I was hoping go, which was no longer possible. India as I last remembered it, was freezing in the morning, and boiling in the afternoon (we went in December), pretty smelly, the people were scared to talk to me and my brother (my sister wasn't born then), and we didn't really want to say anything to them. The thing that disgusted me most about this country was definitely the latrines. I tried not to go to the toilet unless I had a full bladder and was desperate; it was also hard to get toilet paper over there. This time, we prepared ourselves with plenty of rolls before we left. I wasn't very impressed then, but it was also the reason we had gone in the first place, that we didn't feel like enjoying ourselves. It was pretty depressing, as my mother's brother had died in a tractor accident on Diwali, so my mother left England a few weeks before us to go to his funeral.

I must admit that I was a little exited, as many of my relatives from Britain had gone a few weeks before us, so we would be meeting them there as well. The flight had been delayed three hours, so I didn't really have a positive attitude when we arrived at the airport. The one thing that thrilled me when we were boarding the plane was that the passengers went on the stairs instead of the corridor, like in the movies, so that we could actually see the plane as we were boarding it. I' m not scared of flying, but I did grow a little nervous as I approached the plane, the paintwork was hand done, the panels looked loose, and generally dirty. I didn't look like it would make it all the way to India. The airhostesses also looked scary. The were from Kyrgystan, the airline company we were travelling with, and spoke in Russian to each other and in a Russian accent to the passengers. I had to strain to understand them properly. They wore thick bright coloured make up, and were always smiling. This had the opposite effect on me than intended, they reminded me of clowns! Inside, the plane was pretty cramped, and during the take off, my ears hurt and I felt sick. Since we were stopping in Turkey for a break, and changing planes in Russia, I had to go through this six times before we even landed in India. On the plane journey, my family were relaxing, listening to music, and reading magazines, but I was working away, struggling to get my homework finished before we reached India, so I could feel free without the stress of having to catch up there. Although we would be so busy I wouldn't even have time. The whole journey lasted two days, the second plane was even worse. Russia is so cold, that there was ice forming inside the plane!
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It was brilliant when we actually landed in Delhi. The sun was out and the people at the airport were so welcoming. After we came out through customs, we were re-united with my sister's water gun, and mother's almond hair oil, which had been confiscated in Birmingham. I had to laugh. Then we came across a big problem. One of our suitcases was missing. It contained all of my Ricky's clothing. We could claim the contents on insurance, but had to take him shopping for new clothes as soon as possible. I was thirsty, and wanted a drink, ...

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