Today’s question – What place do you consider your home?
For an immigrant in another country, this is one of the hardest question.
Over my life, I have lived in many houses and I have memories of every single one of them. Initially my father rented a few houses but it was always his firm desire to move his family to a permanent home. So the moment he had resources, we moved into the house that is still my parental home.
That home has always been special as I literally grew up there. So all my memories are there. My sister and I had our own room with books, music and TV and while we did not have a lot in terms of material possessions, we were not lacking anything. It was a happy home where my brother, sister and I had the security and love to help us have a happy life forward.
When I got married, my marital home was not a place I stayed for long and I don’t have very fond memories of that place anyways. We made our home in Noida which was a rented house but I have such good memories of that place. My husband and I spent the first few years of our married life there and we grew our relationship, planned for the future, advanced our careers and had a blast in that house. We were young and free and we had loads of fun in that house and Noida that we still reminisce about.
In 2004, we decided to emigrate to Australia. We were not sure what a new country and new environment would be like but we were confident in our abilities and hopeful for the future. We bought a place in 2007 and while it was a small unit, it was special in a lot of ways. It was our first home in the new country, an achievement for us and my son was born there. My moments and memories of that place are priceless.
In 2011, we moved to the house that we currently live in and my home. We custom built it to suit our current and future needs. This is my home as we invested our energy here and like me, my son is building his memories. This is the home which we want to come back when we are travelling. This is the house that we will hopefully be out forever home.
A home is made of people, memories and moments and I am lucky that I have been able to do that is so many houses. But home is where the heart is and that is firmly vested in my current home.