Speakers Blasting. 🔊🎶

Considering long-term stay, I've been away from home following two major stages of my life. Firstly, when I was in London for a couple of years. And secondly, when I moved to another city after getting married. The latter being a permanent shift. 

During both, I got highly disconnected from this enthralling feeling of belongingness. Of course, I was at the top of my game having the time of my life in London. And, I'm having a wonderful time with my husband in a new city. However, there's just something about that sense of "belonging". That word "home" that resonates with our ultimate comfort zones. We can be extremely happy everywhere we go, but like my grandma used to say, the globe is round and therefore has no end. But home is where it all starts and ends. 

On most evenings when my folks are back from work, there's the much awaited tea time and fortunately an impeccable view of the sun setting right in front of my big, wide window in the rather small Mumbai house where my roots lie. My brother connects his phone to the home theater system and plays the music that "he knows" I love. And then, we turn the speakers on. On full blasting volume! Amidst the awaited ginger tea that will be served to us and the view of the sunset between two tall coconut trees, the siblings duo grooving to the beats of a song that probably can be heard by all our neighbours.

This is home! Even if I try,  I couldn't do the exact and manage to feel the same anywhere in the world. Anywhere in the world I could blast the speaker volumes. But mum's tea wouldn't be brewing in the kitchen. Anywhere in the world I won't have the vision of my brother headbanging to the beats thinking he's too cool. Anywhere in the world I wouldn't be sitting next to a father who thinks we should lower the volume; or a housemaid who is getting me the snack she prepared. Anywhere in the world the sun won't be setting right outside "my" window. Anywhere in the world there won't be the warmth of the Mumbai weather. Anywhere in the world there won't be us. Anywhere in the world I won't be able to sit on "my" sofa like a careless maniac, not bothered about a damn thing! 

The speakers still blasting to the next favorite number and you know it will only get better as the tea time prevails. This is family. This is us. 

How can any other place replicate something like that? 

You could have everything laid down under your feet. But no amount of money or effort can buy you another home and the same kind of comfort - the one where your roots lie. 

That's the thing about homes. They cannot be found anywhere else.