Home

ET had us at ‘ET go home’, with a forlorn look on his face, pointing towards the sky with his magic-tipped finger. Or when Scarlet O’Hara in ‘Gone with the Wind’ realizes at the height of chaos of the American Civil war that what she really wants to do is to go home to her beloved home Tara. At end of the novel when Melanie lays dieing, she really wants to go ‘Home’, Home to Rhett Butler and the warmth and comfort that it provides and everything else would be all right.

What is it about Home that is innate to all living creatures? Listening, on the radio, to the Jewish settlers getting uprooted from their homes on the Gaza strip, , the meaning of a home and what they mean to mankind were foremost on my mind. All the politics aside, yes they live on usurped land since 1967, yes this evacuation is pivotal to the Middle East peace process and yes the Palestinians need a place to live too, but what about the families that are directly impacted? About approximately 9000 settlers. Families that have lived there for 30 years, for three generations, have now been asked to fold up and move. To a newer surrounding, to uncertain futures, to capricious tomorrows that’s ripe with trepidation for these families. One can only empathize with what these settlers must be going through, being uprooted from their homes and all. Check out the story from CNN here .

The home is a sanctuary for all living creatures and at the end of the day, this is where we ultimately want to be. In our homes, we are the masters of our domain (not in a Seinfeldian kind of way). Whenever we have taken long vacations, no matter how exotic a vacation place it might be, or to India visiting family, or even to someplace where we have been long looking forward to for a long time, there comes a stage where we wish we could just be back home. Stretch the legs while resting on that battered old couch, chair or loveseat, dressed only in your bare essentials, the mind is finally at peace at home.

What is it about our homes that we are so inexplicably drawn to it ? A sense of security, sense of independence, the ability to do or not do what one wants without being told by people around us? This could be true for any kind of house that you live in, a palatial mansion, a rundown shack or a Unabomber’s hermit-like modest log cabin. I’m sure George Bush is much at home on his ranch in Crawford, Texas than in the White House. Our house, is where we tie back our memories, good and bad. It is a safe haven, away from the maddening crowd, away from the rat race, safely ensconced with people that you really want to be with (well for a lot of us). On the flip side owning a home comes with own set of problems and headaches. Yards need mowing, the shrubs need trimming, the weeds need pulling, winterizing, de-winterizing, gutters to be cleaned and on and on and on. Unless you outsource it all and sit back with the beer and just chill ! Whatever works for you. Either way, there’s no place I’d rather be but home.

Anshul, Pratibha and Shantanu, we sincerely wish you guys many years of happiness, prosperity and success in your new house.

Lyrics from Simon & Garfunkels excellent song ‘Homeward Bound’.

I’m sittin’ in the railway station
Got a ticket for my destination
On a tour of one night stands
My suitcase and guitar in hand
And every stop is neatly planned
For a poet and a one man band

Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home, where my thought’s escaping
Home, where my music’s playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me