No place like home - A new life away from home

No place like home

I am house proud and I love my home so much that I almost never get out of here. I have always known that there is no place like home, but I was inspired to think more on these lines, as I saw my friend packing every bit of her furniture and belongings to go to the far away shores. It did seem like a nice change and better opportunities until she started to freak out. She was recording the conversations we had, as we hung out our washing or as I tended to my plants on the window sill, it seemed like she already knew that there is no place like home.

When I am tired, there is no place like home. I love to have my ginger tea sitting at the lovely teak-wood table, looking at my beautiful orchids blooming and butterflies flitting around between the flowers and feel my tiredness vanish. There is no place like home. When I am worn out, there is no place like home and no bed like mine.. neither too hard, nor too soft, not too high or too low..just the right thing for my weary body to rest, relax and recuperate after a hard day at the computer. When I am ill and can’t do much, there is no place like home. To look through the window and hear the song birds sing, to look at my flowers and let peace fill my heart, there is no place like home. I wonder if any other place be ever become home. Where ever I go, whatever comforts I may enjoy, yet there will be no other place like home. 'Home is, where the heart is’, is a cliched saying, but it is still the truth of the matter.

Change and adjustment to changes in life

I wonder if I will ever have the courage to pack my bags and go to a foreign land and be able to call it home. I will always be an Indian at heart. My culture, my values, my lifestyle and my way of thinking will always remain Indian. My heart will always long to see the landscapes that I love and cherish, it will look for the familiar flowers and birds and animals and climes. Oh! the sun, yes it is hot and humid for most part of the year, but give me but a day of cold and snow and I would want to stretch out my limbs in the warmth of the sun.

Having to adjust to what other cultures and how the people there think is a little stretched out for me.. Being a Roman in Rome is okay for a couple of hours maybe. I don’t mind a visit, for a month or two, but then I want to come back, home sweet home. Every curtain, every trinket and every decor has my stamp of home. I went out into the garden outside, around my apartment block, I found some dried seeds, some vines and some dried palm branches. I picked them up and they stand as the artistic arrangement on my table. This to me is home - the familiar!

Home away from home

I had started writing this hub a few weeks ago, but for some reason I forgot to go back to it. Today my friend called from the Aussie land, which she now calls home. “Sofs”, she shrieks, “This place is hell. I wanna come back home.” I can picture her crying on the other end as her voice breaks. I console her and tell her that she will settle down. Change is always good, and the whole gamut of advice that any psychologist would give. She screams, “Pray for me Sofs, I want to be back in India in a couple of years.” She is freaking out and we have been on call for an half an hour. She realizes that it is going to make a huge hole in her pocket, then we skype and the two families meet. It seems to assuage her loneliness for sometime and then we are back, on Google chat this time, when she sees me online.

Despite the fact that we can connect to the people whenever we want, at a moments notice we are still stuck with the line,’ there is no place like home’. In your familiar environment your house becomes your home, when you move to a destination further from home, your town becomes your home and when you move into the global town, your country becomes your home. Your home is, where you are emotionally secure.

Familiarity breeds contempt. Distance makes the heart fonder. These are two sayings that come to my mind as I ponder on home away from home. We often grumble about our country,our leaders, our people, but it seems, that when you are out of your environment, you see the good side of it all. Perhaps all of us need to take a year of sabbatical and move to a foreign land, just so we learn to value what we have.

Little things are what make the Home

Little things, negligible things, things that do not tally in the final equation are the ones that actually matter, I guess. As for me my little things count, I listed a few of them earlier.

Our comfort zones are our emotional hooks. When we are unclasped from these emotional hooks, we are left dangling in mid air, and then that crazy feeling that we are going to spiral down and fall and the fear of everything that is unknown, shakes us up emotionally.

The truth is we may hurt ourselves more by crying, grumbling and reacting negatively to change. We would do a lot better if we could learn to accept change and find a foot hold to hang on to and thrive. The faster we adapt to change, the better for us.

Change is inevitable - change is permanent

My friend, I miss you too, when I open my door, I see emptiness in the corridor and the fact that your children are not around to make all the noise they did, makes this place unbearable. I miss our talks as we hung out our washing or when I tended to my plants.. or just hung around together. I miss you at my Bible study and miss the times we had discussed all the subjects under the sun from our points of view. But, I know your future may not be tied with mine, soon you may call that land you seem to now vehemently hate, yours and maybe even stop visiting this place, your natural home. Time is a great healer and an amazing leveler.

Yes, you will maintain your Indian-ness, you will teach your kids to eat Indian food and speak the language.. you may remain more Indian than me in many ways..but you will change. Take heart my friend, home is where your heart is... so better keep it with you. Love your culture, love your values, teach them to your children and maybe someday, sometime, at the lands end we shall meet and share notes. Maybe, you will tell me how much you love your Aussie land. It is in your mind dearest one, change your thoughts and you will adapt to the change quicker than you think.

There is no place like home. 'When life hands your lemons, make lemonade' as the saying goes. Oh yes, I can't wait to see an Aussie culled out of a hard core Indian, I have seen many in the past, so the future does not hold a surprise for me.. fare thee well my friend.. until we meet again!!

This is written to make you laugh not cry ..so smile for me dear friend :)