HOME SWEET HOME
Home is the place where, when you have to go there.
They have to take you in.
Robert Frost
It is in this fact that the sweetness of home lies. The memory of insignificant things done at home lingers in the mind of man forever. He may become a great man, a great writer or a great politician but he can never forget the embraces given to him by his mother, the stories told by his grandma, the simple games at home remain on the canvass of his mind for ever. He enjoys them more than he enjoys a serial on the TV.
Our achievements in life are our assets of course. They inspire us to make more progress. We are praised for our innovations and obeyed for our position and strength. But all this power, pelf and position have short lived significance in life. The perennial things are the kisses of a father, the affection of a sister or brother and the unending love of a mother. The sweet words of one’s own child and the sweet smile of a better half are the treasures one cannot have anywhere else.
John Howard Payne agreed
‘Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.’
Home is a place of refuge, a shelter from the hectic and distrustful life. Lalit Maken a trade unionist, when attacked by terrorists in New Delhi ran towards his home crying ‘Mummy save me Mummy save me’. Even a grown up man goes back to his home and his parents at the time of distress. It is the place where lies his full faith, confidence and unending affection.
One can find the life of men who have no parents and no home full of pain. Orphans are most pitiable persons in the world. Charles Dickens’ Pip and David Copperfield symbolize pity and sorrow. What a life had the Chimney sweepers in England in the 19th century! What life the poor rag pickers in metropolitan cities lead. They do not have residence even in slums. Even dogs bark at them. Thomas Hood shed tears for them and wrote those immortal lines
Oh, it was pitiful
Near a whole city full
Howe she had none
The homeless have groans of old. Even the Bible refers to them in the New Testament “The foxes have their holes, and the birds of the air have their nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head’. Let all the poor in the world have Heaven and Home as the Skylark of Wordsworth had. Let them have Home, sweet home.
