Home‘Chweet’ home

Amidst Pleasures and Palaces
Though we may roam
Be it ever so humble
There’s no place like home

So true! May be you are in the best parts of the world, dining at the finest restaurants, in the worlds most fabulous places, ultimately you find solace and tranquility only when you reach your home. All our nnermost feeling and affections and the dearest sense of devotions and emotions are self centered in that one little place in the world ,what you call as “Home”. How much ever we toil or wherever we wander our fatigued wishes still recur to home for tranquility. How much ever we fight with our siblings or how much ever our thoughts don’t match with them, we feel so happy when we talk to them. You must have observed your aunts and uncles and parents who are away from home and meet each other during family get together and parties,they share a beautiful feeling of oneness when they reunite and remind themselves of the incidences of their past and the pranks they played when they were kids. It feels so good to them.

When we are angry and go away from each other ,after some years ultimately we realize what we have done is wrong .We want to go to them but our egocentricity stops us from doing so. This reminds me of an incident where a man ran away from home to enjoy the freedoms of life and ultimately after 50 years when he was on the death bed counting his last moments ,there was no one whom he could call his own and his only last wish was “Take me to my family”. But he was only to realize that he did not know who his family members were and couldn’t trace them.

People may go to far off places to earn money .But what is the use of this money if they are not able to spend time with their family kith and kin. As Samuel Johnson puts it, “to be happy at home is the ultimate result of all the ambitions “What do we earn money for? So that we can buy all comforts and luxuries comes the answer. But for whom? Our home “reminding ourselves of the war cry of the old Romans, “For our altars and our hearths.”

It is sometimes pointed out that the French have no word in their language corresponding to the English word Home but that doesn’t mean that they don’t love their homes. In fact they are the greatest home lovers who don’t want to leave their homes in spite of bragging the best jobs in the world. There is a lot of difference between “house” and “home”. House is just a construction with brick and amenities while home can be without amenities but it is a blend of love, affection, friendship, rest and good conscience.

The role of traditional and modern families can be seen here. We have countless incidences of the breaking of families and relations which ultimately reflects our thoughts and good times. In the movie, Bhootnath, Amitabh Bacchan who had sent his son abroad to study marries there and returns to India only on losing his mother. When he comes to India , they stay there for a couple of days where grandson and granddad develop an attachment but are separated. When they put their step out of the house, Amitabh Bacchan has a brain hemorrhage due to partition and dies on the spot but no one is aware of his death.

Rightly put by S T Coleridge “The largest part of mankind are no where stranger than home”

You remember the times when you were at home and your father used to shout at you and you wanted to back answer him but you kept quiet because he was elder to you and now you miss his shouts because no one is there to take care of you or to shout at you.

You remember the times when your mother used to cook food and you used to n’t eat and now you miss home made food .Remember the times when you had fights with your siblings and you used to say “Leave me alone” but now when you are alone you miss your siblings. Remember the times when your cousins and relatives used to come and stay at your place and you used to get incensed but now you are longing for them to meet you...There is emptiness in your hearts!

So now when you are away from home or from your Grandparents living in the city or away from native place, find time to call them and have a chat with them because they are the ones who have always been with you and would feel so happy when their ears which were empty are filled by the voice of yours. Don’t be miserly by saying that the call rates have gone up so it is not possible to call them frequently. Talk to them after all “East or West Home is the best”.

Shah Dharmik Nitin
B.Sc.Biotechnology