Hello,
I hope you’re having a good week so far.
My week has been really very hectic with travelling and also shifting houses.
That’s the thing about a transferable job, you’re always shifting homes by the time you get adjusted in one. Since I have spent most of my childhood in a single home, I find the whole process quite unsettling.
In almost 7 years of my service, I have stayed in two different official residences in West Bengal and in Himachal Pradesh by now. I have thoroughly loved staying in all these accommodations and have developed a special bond with each place like it’s my own. It was my own during the time. :)
And I am sure so many others before me would have felt the exact same thing. The house and the place remains the same, but the people keep changing, these houses see many faces and many seasons over the years.
Each resident add their own touch to the place making it more beautiful. Some even return back years later to cherish small things about the place like perhaps a tree that they had planted along with their kids and which has now grown into a beautiful big tree bearing fruits.
Some people even make special efforts to build a beautiful garden, while some do their best to preserve the old architecture. Each house has its history that date back many years before. Even a hundred and fifty years some. The residential houses in Bengal dated back to the colonial period and always awed me. I have even seen the rooms that had hand operated cloth Punkhas and attached rooms from where the Punkha-puller would sit to operate it.
I will always remember and cherish the times I have spent at the residences where I have stayed specially the people who make the stay like home. These people always hold the memories of the places together sharing glimpses of it with each passing resident. The Gardner or the cook are quick to remember the residents who had stayed previously and share the memory of some fond moments intriguing the current resident.
Each house welcomes its many residents with equal love and withstands their taste and alterations being made to its being to suit their preferences.
Some come with families, and for some others these houses see newly weds, children being born and many other moments of happiness and sadness alike.
I try and plant a few fruit bearing trees in almost all the places that I have gone to. A small addition of my own. Perhaps to remember by.
It takes a few days in each new home to get used to its walls, its periphery but eventually one leaves the place only with a heavy heart. And keeps coming back to these places in the mind for the sheer joy and memories that these places hold.
And while I adjust myself to this new place, I leave you with a beautiful picture from my first such home under a litchi tree.
Beautifully written ma'am, I resonant this very well. My husband is in armed force and i am also working in all india service, I have changed 4 homes as of now in 6 years of my service. It broke my heart every time when i have to leave the house once we called our home.
Beautifully written .. 🙏🏻❤️