Open When Travelling Home

Open When You’re Traveling Home Alone is a series of letters for someone making the long journey back home by themselves. Each letter is designed for a specific moment in the airport journey: packing, standing in line, weighing luggage, waiting at the gate, sitting through delays, landing, and finally returning home.

The letters do two things at once. They offer practical tips for getting through the journey, from managing luggage and waiting at the gate to staying calm during delays or turbulence. But they also tell my own story of traveling between India and the United States, of leaving and returning, of missing home while moving toward it, and of learning how to care for myself while traveling alone.

The letters are not just written objects. They are shaped around the situations they respond to. A letter about waiting at the gate might take the form of a box maze made with straws, so someone can play with it while waiting. Another might be shaped like a traffic light, a weighing scale, or a fanny pack. The form of each letter becomes part of how it is read, touched, unfolded, and experienced.

Each letter is also paired with a small handmade trinket, such as a cootie catcher, luggage tag, tiny fidget toy, or other playful object. These trinkets act as small companions for the traveler, giving them something to hold, use, or carry through the emotional and logistical strangeness of the airport.

The handmade elements are created by Chandni Agarwal, artist and owner of Moonlightglyph Art Studio. Her work brings a tactile, playful, and carefully crafted dimension to the project, turning each travel moment into a small world of its own.