Home and Away

I have been brought up with the assumption that Home is the beginning and end of it.

Anything and everything is around your home…

Make it warm, cozy and pretty all the time and anything or anyone unpleasant, just keep out.  Home is supposed to be comfortable, wear pyjamas and chappals, sitting with feet up or be a couch potato. If you travel, you only wish to get back home. Home is where the heart is says the chalk board in my kitchen. You  safeguard your house from the evil eye of others by putting up devil masks, mirrors and idols at the entrance. There is a small temple too to ensure the base of God in your sacred home. If someone invites you, you first invite them. It is your recluse form the world, where you are safe and warm away from all the troubles and miseries of the outer world. Some there waiting for you to love and cherish you. There is love, food and laughter all the time. The kitchen stays warm and ready to serve always. This is what the home is and if not you have no right to call yourself a Home Maker.

But then the desire to explore outside home touched me. It started with the newly developed reading habit back then. Such characters, such places, such plots, it was interesting to know so many people even without them existing. It was exciting to travel to the places and see those things and feel those experiences  these people in the books felt. New languages, new religions, histories, tragedies, laughter, drama, incidents, suspense, magic and myths. The books have developed wheels and wings and I could go with them where ever they took me. From the comfort of my own couch and bed side I traveled the world. Visiting new places and revisiting old places, Kolkata, Prague, Istanbul, London, Paris, Italy, Tokyo, Punjab, Mumbai, Delhi, Pushkar, New York, Nigeria, Poland, Russia and what not.

The Long and Winding Road

That leads to your door will never disappear

But now home and books can't curtail me, I wish to get out and go touch that thing. That place with my own eyes, to feel the illusion, to enter the other side of mirror, to sink in the water and to jump from the sky. The choice is between reality and fiction, surreal and clear, lies and truth, warmth or wind, bench or swing, sun or shade. The choice is mine.
#destination, #journey, #Keepsake, #life, #travels,