I strongly believe that those people are truly blessed who still have their childhood home to come back to every year and if that is the ancestral home, then they are double blessed. Which, definitely is the case for me. In this 88-year old yellow brick house, I feel like a load is taken off me the moment I enter through the dark green heavy wooden door right under where the house number 125 is embossed.
I don't know what goes into making a house, but when it comes to making a home for five generations, I think our house has all the necessary ingredients. I am not sure how many houses in Calcutta are this well loved. How many houses of this stature exist in the city today anyway? The solid 25 inch brick walls have the capacity to shelter us from anything the world might throw at us. Those shiny red floors can brighten every spirit. To run up and down the stairs, to touch the railings and trace the shapes that they make, to spin those little things that are supposed to hold a window open once more gives me the feeling that the house is welcoming me home. I know that I can still walk blindfold all the way up the stairs to the third floor. My brain has it mastered so well. The familiar gong of the wall clock is so reassuring. That clock is also giving perfect time for almost a century now.
To come back here is to become my carefree self once more. The biggest decision I have to take now is how to decorate the Christmas tree and what ornaments to buy for it. Everything else is taken care of.
Do you remember those cordless phones? How they could be taken anywhere all around the house, but at the end of the day they were put on their cradles to be recharged? My home is like that. Wherever I may travel and roam, I need to come here for some time to get recharged.
I don't know what goes into making a house, but when it comes to making a home for five generations, I think our house has all the necessary ingredients. I am not sure how many houses in Calcutta are this well loved. How many houses of this stature exist in the city today anyway? The solid 25 inch brick walls have the capacity to shelter us from anything the world might throw at us. Those shiny red floors can brighten every spirit. To run up and down the stairs, to touch the railings and trace the shapes that they make, to spin those little things that are supposed to hold a window open once more gives me the feeling that the house is welcoming me home. I know that I can still walk blindfold all the way up the stairs to the third floor. My brain has it mastered so well. The familiar gong of the wall clock is so reassuring. That clock is also giving perfect time for almost a century now.
To come back here is to become my carefree self once more. The biggest decision I have to take now is how to decorate the Christmas tree and what ornaments to buy for it. Everything else is taken care of.
Do you remember those cordless phones? How they could be taken anywhere all around the house, but at the end of the day they were put on their cradles to be recharged? My home is like that. Wherever I may travel and roam, I need to come here for some time to get recharged.
No comments:
Post a Comment