At 63, actor Neena Gupta took her first solo trip across Europe recently. “I was very nervous because it was the first time that I was going all alone. My friend was supposed to come with me, but she backed out at the last minute,” Gupta tells us.

The Panchayat actor explored the picturesque locales of Europe, including Greece, Italy and Santorini, which she calls her “dream come true moment”. She adds, “Everything was good, but shaam ko thoda akela lagta tha. The whole day I used to explore the places, but in the evening I would feel, ‘Koi saath mein hota toh achha hota’.”

Gupta kept her fans updated through her social media posts. “It was a great trip, but going on a solo holiday is not easy,” says the actor. But she accepts that travelling alone did instil a sense of independence in her and the trip helped her find a few things about herself. “I realised that I am a loner. I never went out in the evening to have dinner. I had my food and slept in my room,” says the Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan (2020) actor.

Her daughter, designer and actor Masaba Gupta, was paranoid about her travelling alone. “She kept saying, ‘Why are you going alone?’ She felt guilty that she couldn’t accompany me,” she says, admitting that she “would like to go on such a trip again”.