As usual, one morning I was having breakfast with my husband and reading the newspaper online. While reading, I came across the recent news about Auckland houses. One of NZ’s economists suggested Aucklanders to rent instead of buying a house. He suggested this because of the rising prices of houses in New Zealand and long-term mortgage payment. I shared this news with my husband. He asked me, “Why are you looking so worried? We are renting and we don’t have to pay any mortgage.” I answered, “I am a common married woman and I dreamt of our own house. I want to show my friends and relatives that we have our own house.” He asked, “So, you want a house to show them?” I replied, “ I am not a saint and I live in a material world.” He asked, “What would your dream house be like?” Before I could answer him, he said, “I am getting late for my job…we will talk later…bye.”
After he went I asked myself the same question. As soon as I thought of it, a picture of a beautiful two-bedroom kiwi-style house with a small garden came into my mind. Surprisingly, at the back of my mind there was another house and I found myself in that house. This one was similar to the first one at the exterior. But it was different from inside. The interior was designed in a different way.
When I looked around, I saw the walls coated with the colour of love, romance and friendship. The other walls were coated with the colour of joy, fun and freshness. Some were painted with the colour of healing and protection. Others were painted with traditional colours of peace and happiness. Some were with the colour of knowledge; power, integrity, seriousness, and some were with the color of purity and patience.
The walls were built with the cement of trust. The trust between every couple and in every family member residing there. The pillars were made of relationship, support, togetherness and strong bonds, which were between family members. The windows and glasses were of transparent, honest and loyal nature towards each other. The doors were of broad mindedness and open heart of family members. They were always open for each other.
The flour or the foundation was made up of moral, social and cultural values. I mean to say “Sanskar.” The roof was of love, unity and belongingness of family members. The ceiling was made of the sense of respect, responsibility and understanding that they had towards each other.
There was a living room made of feelings, experiences and jokes that were shared between family members. This room was situated in the heart of the house. There were shelves made of discussions and decisions that were essential for keeping the living room in a systematic manner.
The kitchen and dining were made up of giving, sharing and caring attitude towards each other to stay healthy. It also consisted a pantry made of various spices, sugar and salt. Those were different tastes of family life. All the members in the family enjoyed the food together. Sometimes the food was too spicy like bad times in life and sweet like good times. Every one, especially the woman in the family worked hard to make a perfect dish for a well balanced diet (life).
The bed in the bedroom was made up of contentment and inner satisfaction. The pillow was made of positivity and free from all negative thoughts. It was so comfortable that one could have a sound sleep on it.
There was also a small Mandir made up of spirituality. An inner path went to the Mandir and one could discover the essence of his/her being by walking through that path.
The beautiful garden was of children and kids. The flowers of the plants looked like smiling faces of children. There were different garden tools made of discipline, love, attention and caring attitude. I found the grandparents and elders of the family doing gardening to grow plants (children) into well-shaped and healthy trees (adults).
At the backside, there were bathroom and toilet, where everyone in the family got rid of the bad times, sorrows and pains of life. There was also a washing room made for cleaning all the differences that sometimes arose between family members. Everyone came out of this room with fresh and new ideas to deal with the family matters.
Suddenly I heard the whistle of my pressure cooker and I came into reality from my imaginary world. In the evening when my husband came back from work, I narrated him everything that I had imagined. He said, “The first picture that you saw was of a ‘house’ and the second one was of a ‘home’.” I asked him, “So what do you think of a house?” He said, “I don’t care about the ‘house’ as we are happily living in our sweet ‘home’.” I replied “Yaa…also we don’t have to pay the mortgages for our ‘home’.” He said, “Still we have to pay the mortgages.” I questioned, “How is it possible?” He answered, “The long term mortgages in the form of compromises that we make from time to time for our family and lovely ‘home’.” I smiled and said, “Yes, you are right!”
Next day, one of my friends came to meet me after a very long time. As soon as she got out of her car she asked, “So, this is the rental ‘house’ where you recently got shifted?” And I proudly said, “Yes, this is my ‘home’”, happily showing it to her.