Saturday, July 25, 2009

Back Home

Home is where your heart is, and where you feel yourself as you truly are. I am no netizen, but coming back to the blog after so many months is like a home-coming; but this time there is no promises, and no excuses. There is a time for everything, and that is true for this blog too. We realize how cozy it is here, only when we are faced with the lack or absence of it. Is not this a space that we all look forward to - though in an altogether different sense, in a psychological sense!

We live in a world where we are squeezed from all corners, and sometimes we might find it hard even to breathe. We would long to get out of the normal crowd, normal people, to be by ourselves, to breathe easy, to smell the neighbor's kitchen, to gaze at young man/woman next door, to feel the chill air dashing through, to taste one's own saliva (an experience we had long forgotten), and to realize that we are still hale and hearty.

Every time when we get back to our familiar grounds, we are not the same; we bring home our own bags and baggage, and it might take a while to unpack our past and get back to our present. But is there a problem in returning to our present with the baggage of our past, still tied to our shoulders? Of course there is. Until we put the baggage aside, and enter into the present, with all its flavors, we may not be fully ourselves.

Home, sweet home! Just think of the people who do not have a place which they can call their own; there is no word 'home' in their dictionary. How are we to regard them? The nomads, the homeless, the pavement dwellers, the platform children, those who live in creaky shackles, those who count their days in slums which may be burned at any moment, or be thrown away on any day, with no prior notice! Are these too true human persons, like you and me? How can we consider these people as citizens of this nation, when their basic right to shelter is deprived. What can you and I do about it?

We are not gods, and there is no magical quality given to us, so that we could create another tier over our sky, and let those who live on the pavements enjoy the comfort of a home! If only that is made possible, how happy will we be to rise above the earth, and live in the midst of clouds; we will then play hide-and-seek with the clouds, enjoy the afternoon siesta swaddled by the cool clouds, and curse the earth for the injustice it perpetrates joining our voices with the thunder. If only we are gods!

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