HOME

 The year is almost ending and it's time to exhaust all our leaves and like every year its time to finalize our trip to India, our home.

What is home but I wonder. Being a girl has a different meaning and dimension to this word. It is more of an emotion than a physical space. What should I call home? The place where I spent my childhood and adolescence or the place I moved to for work? The place I shared with roommates or the place I temporarily lived to avoid a long commute to work. The home of my husband or the place we lived for a mere 10 months on a short assignment after marriage. The longest we lived anywhere after marriage is our humble and small apartment in Düsseldorf. To value that place with its square footage would be wrong though. It has a lot of laughs, fights, crying, celebrations and - to its credit - If only the walls could talk...
But that is a vested property too. For a long time, we didn't buy any stuff because we wanted to move to a bigger and better place. But little did we realize that we were already at a good place.
Then for the next few months, we were in Basel. The home was well-equipped but lacked a feeling when I just came there. But in a span of a few months, with regular visits and feeling comfortable in it, maybe that's the definition of home. A place where you feel comfortable. Having said that, comfort is also a state of mind. But then what is not? Every emotion, every sensation is a state of mind. Maybe it's the people "around" you who influence it or it may be your perception of their behaviours which makes you comfortable. It sure is complex.
Coming back to the original question however - what is home? Maybe it is where you have all your - clothes, maybe it's where you have all your documents, maybe it's where your Wi-Fi automatically connects, maybe it's where all the smells make you nostalgic, maybe it's where you find your loved ones, or maybe it's where you get your best sleep. It doesn't sound like one single place though.
For me, if I close my eyes and think about home, it's the place I spent most of my childhood and adult life. It's where I dreamt and lived with no inhibitions or responsibilities. It's where I grew up with my parents and siblings, protected, loved, and nurtured. It's where I would love to travel back in time to.
On an unrelated (if not ironic) note though, I've been the one lobbying to sell that place for my parents to settle at a better place. I would always call that space my home whoever the owner be
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Maybe home is where the heart is.