FLIGHT OF FREEDOM

Author SIDDHARTH DHANVANT SHANGHVI breaks free from pandemic shackles to soak up the sun in Switzerland.

- SIDDHARTH DHANVANT SHANGHVI

ON THE BAGGAGE wheel at Geneva Airport, my suitcase dropped out of the carousel mouth, but by the time I’d walked over to it, it was gone. Like a magic trick gone awry, it vanished into thin air.

I arrived at my hotel, the majestic Beau Rivage Genève, on Lake Geneva, with only my carry-on. The building is like the ancestral home of an aristocratic family, discreet salons and dramatic corners, exquisite flooring, arches that lead into rooms with frescoes—a palace in the heart of Geneva. The Beau Rivage’s wildly efficient concierge was tracking my missing suitcase—where had it gone? Arriving sans luggage in a foreign country, after months of village life in India, I was frazzled. But the view from my glorious, twin-level suite was calming: the green-blue lake, a manicured shorefront. Swathes of tourists were strolling as if the pandemic were finished. I questioned my internal class bias: while crowds shopping in Mumbai’s Dadar Market annoyed me, I felt relief right now.