H is for home

Home - In dictionary, it may be just a 4-letter word but it encompasses the warmth and love of whole world.

It is where you feel at ease and comfort and can be yourself.

No matter what part of the world I ever travel to, at the end, home is where I'd want to crawl back to. And this feeling of home is not related to any physical location or a particular house only. I get that feeling when I crash at the end of the day on my side of bed with a book and my mug of hot coffee.

When I go to India, even after being married for 14 years, I do not get that feeling of comfort while I am at my in-laws place. The minute I reach mom's place, the feeling is to kick off my shoes, touch and feel every little thing in the house, then pick up something leftover from the kitchen and lay on mom's bed.

When I was away from home for 3 years for my studies, the first year, my hostel room felt like a prison to me. It felt cold and stranger and so uninviting.

But slowly as I settled into that life, the same room became a second home to me.

I organized it, decorated it (with SRK posters, that’s a different story) and loved coming back to it and felt sad when I was leaving it.

And now staying in this country, even after being here for almost 10 years now, it never gives me a homely feeling.

I still struggle to say that it is my home country and yet it is my home now.