Home – a haven away from heaven

As the rain drops fall, and you are listening to “Let it go” by Passenger, and the vocalist tells you about how you only miss the light when it’s dark, how you only miss the sun when it starts to snow and so on and so forth. But when you are sitting a thousand kilometres away from your home, the chord strikes when the vocalist hymns about how you only hate the road when you missing home and as the chord strikes, it sets in motion the nostalgia and the sentiments, bringing back memories you long stopped thinking about, knowing, it would be impractical to miss home every second.

It’s true. When you have something, you just don’t realize it’s worth. Especially when it’s your home which has a family whose love and care almost every kid takes for granted because they never let you be hurt and they never expect care in return. They love you unconditionally. They love you selflessly. Be it your parents or your grandparents or your siblings.

The realisation is not so sudden as you might think, it slowly and steadily breaks you, thread by thread, in your own fantasy world known as “independence”. Read on for just a tip of the contemplation as to how you have been ignorant, careless and deviated from the knowledge of the efforts people around you undertake, in order to keep you happy and satisfied.

Life away from home:

You are hungry (trust me, this is always the worst reminder, 😛 ). You want food. It’s 2 a.m. What more could have gone wrong, you contemplate, sitting on the bed, and simultaneously deciding whether it’s worth the effort to get up, walk, get something to eat, eat and so on. If, by a very thin chance, you arrive at the answer “yes, it’s worth it”, in the over enthusiasm of getting food, you forget who will get up to put the soiled dishes where they belong.

Let’s take another example. You wanna wash clothes. You postpone. You patronise yourself with the idea that you would definitely do it tomorrow. Tomorrow becomes tomorrow again. It’s a date in the evening. All of the sudden you find yourself being so moved by the situation, you would be willing to sign an amendment you won’t let such crisis come again.

What happens when you have a fight with your close friends? When you are hurt, when you have so much bottled up but you just don’t have an ear? And what if a call is not enough. Even video calling can’t provide the warmth of a mother’s love or the comfort of a brother’s hug or the happiness of a sister’s smile or the sense of security of holding your father’s hand.

Life at home:

We never really cared about where the food was coming from. All we cared about was “placing the order” for what we wanted to eat and when and, home being the magical fort it is, provides it on a platter served to us. We never bothered thanking our mom for the food, nor did we ever thank the worker who collected our soiled plates and washed it. It doesn’t matter what’s the time or whatever is going on, when you are at home and you are hungry, you will get food. Even at 2 am, you will either have a fridge load of food or you just have to tell your mother that you are hungry, and Voila! You get food! Ever been grateful to your mom for that?

We never cared about who washed our clothes. The maximum we did, if we did it, was to throw the clothes that required to be washed. Did we ever thank the person who washed our clothes? Ever tried to find out how your room got suddenly arranged and beaming from the pile of clutter that you had created, let alone thanking that person. You are hurt, you need an ear or some sound advice or maybe just a caring attitude, you don’t even have to utter anything to get these. You have all of this, more than ready, at your disposal in masks of family members. You never mentioned to them though, how much it meant to you.

Readers, the arguments sound menial. Some of you might think how crappy it sounds to thank the house aid or how you don’t need to exclusively show your mother how much you love her or that you don’t only have problems when you stay away from home or how staying at home is not only roses, so on and so forth. Well that is not the point, the arguments are just a way to inflict a thought.

Gratitude:

A single word, multi-verse meaning. Be grateful to your mother, she does not do it out of compulsion. Thank your house help, he could have not stayed those extra 10 minutes to urgently iron your shirt. Let them feel their job is well appreciated. Money might help them, it does not necessarily make them happy. Thank your father, he might as well have been disappointed in you from the first lie you uttered. Yet, he stood by you, making you, stronger and fitter, and you always knew, he will hold your hand when you fall. Be grateful to everyone in your home for this CHARITY SHOULD BEGIN AT HOME.