Home is where the mess is

Special thanks to my dear friend Reynah for coming up with the golden words which shortened my whole post into one sentence.


Home.. Now where is that exactly? Where your parents live? Where you spent all your childhood? The place you live in right now? For most people the answer is simple and even the question might seem a little silly. But for someone like me its a valid question with mixed answers.

I've been at my new married life for 9 months now. A couple of weeks back I returned to India for the first time after getting here. Before leaving both me and my husband were looking forward to meeting family and friends and all the great food. We thought we were going 'home'.

The two weeks in India went by quickly. It was great for both of us to be with our family, get all the VIP attention. Not to forget the great food and the amazing Deepavali celebrations! It felt brilliant to sleep in my old room and eat at my mom's dining table and all that. When it was time to go back we both were dreading the journey back. The thought of the mess we left before we left made me want to cry. The thought of going back to work practically made me want to throw up. But leave we had to..

We came back and opened the door to the colossal mess that was our house. We went ahead just let everything be and dropped onto the couch. I felt a strange familiarity, the feeling of everything you need being exactly where its supposed to be ( strewn on the floor is a valid place). I thought I was crazy, but then I saw my husband smiling too. "We're home" I said.

The last two weeks felt like a well deserved vacation, and the place we once called home was more like a luxury resort now. Things had changed even for my husband, who always considered "home" to be the place in India where the parents live. Sure we were blue and depressed but it was like the end of any holiday, it wasn't "home"sickness anymore. Somewhere along the line, the little matchbox house with 2 messy people living in it had changed from being the "house we live in" to "home". Family was now me and him.

I don't know if home is where the heart is, but its definitely where the beloved mess is :)