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On Our Way Home

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The festival of going back home is just around the corner and there is already an excitement that at least for some weeks we can escape the hustling city and return to our tranquil village home. There is a joy in between missing a place, missing someone special, wanting to get back and reuniting again.

More than a religious ritual, culture or a national festival that binds people belonging to different classes, castes, cultures and creeds together. For me the real significance of Dashain festival is the delightful experience of going back and being at our home, to the place where you can always be yourself and be altogether.

Besides, the festival carries a romantic idea that it is still possible to escape from our present and fall back into the laps of our warm and secure relationships. After all, it’s the joy of togetherness that turns a house into a home and in this festival we reconnect ourselves with those people with whom we share our life, destiny, descriptions and common memories together.

Our dreams may take us away but our nostalgia enthralls us to make a difficult journey back home once again. Hence, people are prepared to stand and wait on the queue for hours, cramp themselves onto the buses and travel for hours to get back to their home in run up to this festival.

Perhaps, once in a year this festival releases us from the homesickness of moving away and missing a place. Moreover, the festival makes us realise that we can leave behind, run away, travel about the world and achieve all you dreams but we also need to return because in our home we actually find what we are always searching for, a touch of love, support, a shelter, warmth, sound sleep and smell of foods cooked by special hands.

Home is always with us but we only realise its importance when we leave the place and move about. And, this festival stands as a constant reminder that at least once a year we need to rest on our roots, enjoy the lightness of our being and nurture ourselves with all the sweetness of simple family pleasures. As leaving the home is also part of returning, nothing can be as nourishing as to be at home for this festival, to fly the kites among white clouds, to let go of our worries and to feel breathless for a while floating up and down in a swing and to dig up those moist soils with our hands once again to find a place where we have kept our sense of belonging safely.

By Gaurav Ojha