Leave Your Home : Blog # 132

Leave Your Home

       I believe it is not until we leave the comfort of our homes, do we discover our true self. We all have notions about ourselves. We think we have understood ourselves completely or at least better than what our family does. One fine day, we leave the walls of our home and the self discovery that happens takes us completely by surprise!

      It was after I completed Engineering that I first stayed away from home – in Bombay. I thought I was well equipped to stay away from Home. I was relatively more matured than my friends. I had a fair knowledge of the city I was going to. I thought I will just settle down fine and easy. I couldn’t be more wrong.

 I remember the first feeling of missing home and family was when I was having my dinner at a hotel for the fourth day J. The smallest of things began bothering me. Not having a private bathroom, having to use the public transport, not being able to watch my favourite programs on TV. The list went on and on.

            Once we go out of home, we begin to appreciate the little things that usually tend to go unnoticed. The familiar faces in the home town that passes a smile or makes an enquiry when ever crosses a path, the pet names by which the neighbours call out to us, the familiarity of the streets...

We begin to discover and understand the world in more ways than one. We learn how priceless the family is whom we take for granted. We understand how much of a support system friends can become. We realize how important it is to help out people who stay away from their home and hearth in however small ways possible.

           As much integral is the learning that happens of the world outside, equally enriching is the growth that comes from self realization. We begin to reassess how modern or how liberal we are in our thoughts in pressing situations.Once we leave the door of our homes, we understand what our thresholds are – both emotional and physical. We come to know how seemingly trivial things begin to unsettle us. For instance, a slight fever away from home might make us weaker than a full blown flu when we are with family. 

            Leaving home doesn’t attain its full meaning until one stays in a different city all by oneself. Travelling to a city for a couple of days away from home and residing in a city are two entirely different things. One need to go through the process of getting adjusted to and getting accustomed to the ways and means of a new town. The more one goes through such instances, the more one grows, the more acceptable one becomes and more accepting one becomes.

Arun Babu

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