Wander, and the Romance Finds You

This year, I took my first solo trip.
It happened in Switzerland.

I traveled there with my girlfriends. For three days, we stayed together, explored together, and laughed together. Then they left, and I stayed back for another three days, alone.

We all had a romantic notion of Switzerland, shaped by the Bollywood movies we grew up watching. Our running joke was that maybe I would finally find my “Raj” there. Raj is the charming hero from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. He meets the obedient girl in Europe and sweeps her off her feet. My friends teased me endlessly. “Who knows,” they said, “maybe your Raj is waiting on that train.”

But reality had other plans.

I was supposed to take the Golden Pass Express. It is a train known for one of the most picturesque routes in Switzerland. I hadn’t reserved a seat in advance. My Golden Pass covered the ticket, but not the reservation. Every seat was booked. One of my friends suggested I just board the train and sit in the restaurant car. We laughed, remembering how couples in movies always seem to meet there.

From Bern, I tried my luck at the counter in Spiez. The man there was kind, patient, and trying very hard not to laugh.
“It’s a very small train,” he said gently. “There is no restaurant car.”

He helped me find a better route to catch the Golden Pass Express from another station.

He was right—it was a small train with panoramic windows. And when I looked around? No Raj. In fact, the carriage was filled with elderly tourists. I was likely the youngest person there. I laughed internally at our silly romantic fantasies.

But a few minutes into the journey, a real romance began. Not the kind I can easily explain. The rolling scenery was a feast. I forgot the train, the people, the jokes. My soul was running barefoot through picturesque villages. My heart got caught on the snowy peaks. My eyes were arrested by the green of the plains.

As I stared out at the passing world, I caught a glimpse of a woman in the window reflection.

I saw the full, confident swell of her breasts and the sleek leg revealed through the slit of her dress. I noticed her sharp nose with a nose ring and her shapely, full lips. But more than all of that, I was captivated by her eyes. They were so bright, so sharp, and so alive. They reflected a life fully experienced.

She wasn’t asking to be seen. She simply was.

In that moment, I realized I didn’t need to find Raj.
I could love her — wholly, tenderly, honestly.

And maybe that was the romance Switzerland had promised me all along.