Late Night @ Kottara

it was 3.30 am and I was at my friend's place at Kottara talking to them about life, work, life @ work, work in life, friends, hobbies, and practically everything under the monsoon-cloud-covered sun! I had met my college buddies after almost a year and it felt like a crime of negligence on my part for not having kept in touch with them for so many months.

Still I kept this feeling at bay and continued to talk to them and listen to their stories as they told it to me with great fervour. And I realized something very strange, that they and I have similar problems we face at office, it is like irrespective of the geographical location and nature of the project we had the same set of a-holes ruining it for us at work! We shared notes and tips on how to handle these creatures and how to get our lives out of rut and start living again!

Life is tough everywhere, but having family close by reduces the agony of separation to some extent. I stay away from home for a little less than 5 days and I know how restless I get by that 5th day! So how much worse is their pain, they who spend 3 days travelling to get to the place they call 'home'? They stay in 3 BHKs, well furnished, stocked with chocolates and ice-creams in the refrigerator and Broadband Internet Connectivity in their bedrooms. They have carom boards and Uno Cards to play with and a television to watch. Yet they call this their 'Room' not their 'Home'. It takes something else to build a Home: love of the members who live there, care and concern for each other, a sense of sharing and a whole lot of humor and laughs. And as we sat and watched the English lose to the Dutch at a game that the British invented, we played Uno and laughed like we've never laughed before in ages all having fun at each other's expense. It was as if the din faded, everything went slow-mo and a soft instrumental music began to flow through that 'Room' transforming it into a 'Home'. We shared and ate the ice-cream from the box, gave each one a piece of chocolate and kept a count of who had how many points at the end of each game. Someone rightly said, "Home is where the Heart is!"

And that's when it became clear to me how they could live for so many months so far away from home. It was only their love for each other, their affection and concern for one another that made their house a home. I hope they carry this sense of home with them wherever they go, just as I carried it with me back home.