Love defines home
Home is where my mother is (Off the Cuff: ‘Wherever I lay my hat, that’s my home’, Gulf News, June 14). It is more of an emotional state for me. I live with my family here in the UAE. However, my mother travels back to Pakistan after every six months since a few of my siblings live there. She spends more time in Pakistan than in the UAE. When she is here with us, it feels more like a home rather than an apartment for living. Perhaps because I miss her at times when I am alone, or perhaps because I see her beautiful face welcoming me after I come from work; or when she takes care of me by making amazing dishes.
I think home is an emotional state of mind where one feels relaxed and secure by being in that habitat with people I love. Maybe it could be a physical place if it’s somewhere I have always been or even the smell and scent of items that brings the nostalgia of being in a place called home.
Home is simply love for someone or something no matter where in the world you are.
From Sumera Malek
Dubai
Embracing life’s changes
Home is nostalgia, home is refreshing, home brings back the roads trod often and for most, the feeling of unsurmountable love and pangs of homesickness. Having come to the UAE almost two decades ago, the yearnings of an expatriate always called to me. Home to me was in the commercial capital of India, Mumbai – my port, my anchor, a place where I learnt life’s lessons and nurtured the culture I eventually had to inculcate and imbibe.
However, as I began living in this land, which was so welcoming for me as an expatriate, my feelings of home took a surprising turn. I saw Mumbai in ways more than one and, yes, away from the hustle and bustle. Before I could feel the serenity of this place and explore the unwinding paved roads, I was now taking care of my little angels.
That’s when I realised that, yes, it was my turn to refurbish my thoughts from the pangs of homesickness to the thrill of exploring. This city was now my home, my anchor, a place where I had to teach life’s lessons to my angels and at times unlearn and relearn life’s lessons and leave an impression on the minds of my children for the culture they need to nurture.
Our yearning for home might be the underlying motivation to live however, I feel that my home is where I lay my hat. I need to do my best and to lay the hat well enough so that the the young arms that are snug around me will feel that security and unsurmountable love that I embraced years ago. That is the circle of life for me.
From Ms Shalini Menezes
Dubai
Home is with family
Charlotte Arrowsmith’s words in this Off the cuff completely and thoroughly echo my own sentiments about home. It reminds me of something my grandmother used to always say: “It takes only hands to build a house, but hearts to make a home.” To put it succinctly, a home is where you can be yourself, just yourself without being constantly judged for your attire, your draperies, your furniture, your habits and your personality. A home doesn’t have to be a physical manifestation of a building or a villa. My home lies with my family. When I’m with them, I’m truly at home.
From Ms Drishti Kampani
UAE
Emotional state, not physical place
As the saying goes: ‘Home is where the heart is’. That defines it all. Our heart is always with the people we love the most. That might be our family, friends or even pets. I am married and settled in Dubai and blessed that I have my parents and sister here, but whenever I am not well or facing any difficulty I feel homesick, I want to rush to my parents’s home and spend time with them to share a joke, have a laugh with my sister or eat my mother’s homemade food because that apartment is my home. It is where I have grown up and have created memories.
I would say home is more emotional belonging than a physical one. No matter where one will be, his heart will always be with his loved ones and that place we call home could be our father’s arms, our mother’s lap or just that little fight with your sibling.
From Mr Qudsiya Shafi
UAE
Energy bank and stress drain
To me, home is where one feels most at ease. It’s where we long to get back to. It’s the energy bank and the stress drain. A simple bowl of porridge will taste the best when we have it at home with the family. It wouldn’t taste the same in the luxurious bowl of a five-star hotel. That’s why one always misses homemade food. Just a minute of chatting with the little ones gives more relaxation than any spa in this world. A cute game with the family is more fun than any other social club. More than a physical state, home is an emotional state of mind.
From Ms Sisina Anish
Dubai
People make a home
A home is the sum total of emotions, hopes and aspirations of the people living in the home. That’s why we say a house can be bought, but a home has to be made through the combined efforts all its inhabitants.
From Ms Shiva Subramanian
Sharjah
Far away from home
Home is where you spend your most cherished moments. Home is the land where you were born, a place that has seen you grow, a place that reminds you of who you are, a place where the doors are always open, the people that live in and around it love you and accept you as you are. They drop in to meet you without prior appointments.
A place with no pretence, a place where you belong, a place that you don’t have to adapt to, a place you can work your way around. A place where you can throw yourself undone and still not be judged.
Home is where your heart is and for now the heart is far away from home!
From Ms Sangeeta Birla
UAE
Finding home everywhere
Home is wherever you choose to make it. Home is the place you want to go to every night after work. Home is your very own place; your castle; your sanctuary. Home is the base from where everything else happens. Home is the place in your heart and mind that you always want to be. Home can be anywhere in the world so long as you find happiness, love, peace and security there.
And for the perpetual expatriate, everywhere is home!
From Mr David Woodward
Dubai
Need for people in our lives
I would never say: ‘My home’, instead I would say: “Our home”. It’s a family consisting of a wife, children and sometimes parents and mother or father-in-laws. If you are saying “my home”, it is as if you are always using first person “I”. How can we get complete security at home unless there is a loved one to wrap their arms around us? Home is merely a dwelling where we can stay comfortably. But, at the same time, we should take care of our home, especially cleanliness. If you are dumping unwanted stuff at home, you will feel irritated and sick. You should spend time outside, at least two to three hours a day. If you always stay indoors, you will be just like staying in a lonely place. Wherever you go, you cannot consider it as your home. If you are going to an unknown place, you cannot call it your home. Home is a physical place and at the same time, you feel emotional depending on your mood. When you reach home after the office, you feel tired and you get relaxation. But, “our home” and not “my home” is always better. Keep it neat and tidy.
From Mr Thottikamath Balaraman
UAE
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