Home

Home. Today, we hear this word more than ever before. StayHome StaySafe, is the mantra that is echoing in all corners of the world. In the current situation of Lockdowns across many countries, Home has different connotations for different people. For some, it is a safe cocoon, for others it is made up of anxiety-inducing, claustrophobic four walls, for some it is a living hell of domestic abuse, for yet others it is an uncertain mirage, a wistful hope.

A young girl sitting alone in her studio apartment dealing with loneliness, or the old couple yearning for their children in the convalescent centre or the young mother who finds herself suddenly in the company of extended family in a strange city away from her four year old daughter, the migrant worker pining to go back...all dream and long for their Homes.

To some, Home is the presence of our loved ones around us, to some it is the small mud house lovingly built by the family in a barren piece of land, for some it is the Neem tree at the outskirts of their village which signals the arrival of their Home, to someone else it is the muddy courtyard that is filled with the laughter of his children. How can we begin to define anyone's Home?

Can we comprehend the anguish of the migrant worker who's ready to trudge hundreds of kilometers to be with his loved ones in his ancestral village he calls Home? Can we ever empathize enough with the mother who is separated from her child? Can we understand the loneliness of the man who's struck in a strange city with no loved ones around him? Can we gauge the anxiety of the hostelier who's struck half way across the country while his worried and harried parents pray day after day for his safety? Does the longing of a lonely old man stuck indoors craving for company really resonate with us?

Every person defines their Home on their own terms and it seems like a luxury to indulge in existential issues and matters of the heart in times like these. For those of us who are basking in the company of our loved ones, resting on the security of bank balances and enjoying the luxury of cuisine choices, maybe it's time to realize that the sum of all these parts don't make up Homes.


A secure roof over the head, two square meals a day, some money in the bank accounts, a promise of a better and safer tomorrow, can they make up for the warmth and comfort that a Home offers. A Home may mean all these, but there is also that elusive, inexplicable something, that immediately triggers the happy and peaceful note in our hearts and minds. It is more than the sum of all these parts. Like Love, we just know when we are Home.