Thursday 3 September 2015

Grief of homelessness : Blog # 237

Grief of homelessness


                These days, travel has become quite sexy. The reason why I use the word ‘sexy’ is not because there aren’t enough better words or adjectives. I could have used aspirational or appealing. But ‘sexy’ best describes how travel is being portrayed these days. All the posts on social media or little write ups with exotic pictures just show the short-lived positive aspects of a travel.  I understand romanticizing travel and that is acceptable. But now, it is getting a bit too much to the extent that people have started taking those articles with much seriousness than what they deserve. That reasons the use of the adjective ‘sexy’ which lacks depth and vastness.


            Travelling is indeed fun. The process of being on the move is like exercising ones imagination. One is constantly exposed to different things. There is less of certainty which usually brings along a tad bit of boredom. There is an assault of newness on our sensations. Our eyes perceive a new sight with every passing moment, the windows of memory which open with every new smell springs a surprise, our skin feels a new air every other mile we move. We somehow feel that we are being one with time. It is no longer us being on a pause and time on a fast forward.

            My contention here is how travel is being portrayed in a positive light by dumping down the value of certainty. Many a time, familiarity and certainty is shown in a poor light by use of one word – ‘boring’ ! How often have you heard some advertisement or the other speaking of same old boring work, boring car, boring spouse and such? It is fashionable to say that one needs new things. What we are forgetting is that those constants in Life are what add meaning to our existence. It is acceptable if you need newness in your life once in a while. But one cannot expect newness in every living moment!

            Certainty in life is like Home. Wherever you go, all of us need one place which we can call our own. One place, to come back to. One place where there are people whom we love. One place where there are things we have got used to. One place where we have grown up in. One place which smells of childhood.

As is with other things in life, so long as we have it, we do not realize its value. Home is certainty. To know what a home means to one’s existence, ask a wanderer. He/she will tell you that as much as they have enjoyed walking around the world, it would have been great to have had a place in the world to anchor their mind on to for the moment your mind starts wandering, it becomes difficult to hold oneself together.


            The picture listed here, of Aylan Kurdi which all of us have seen is one of the most moving ones in the history of mankind. It embodies the grief of homelessness. In the journey which his parents undertook to find a home cost that little baby, his destiny. Let the tears which roll down our souls for this little kid and his family help us see the immense value of the serene nest that is certainty.

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