Home is where hearth is! So goes an ancient saying -- defining most accurately what actually constitutes home. Home is where we get our succour for life -- through food, through fun, through fine thought, through fair dealing, through togetherness, through a sense of security, through an awareness that it is home where one can return after facing life in its victories or vagaries ...! Hearth represents all this in one go. It does not provide just the food, but also the warmth that the cinders -- now gas or electric power -- emanate.

 

It is around the hearth that the family congregates, zeroes in. It is around the hearth -- and the subsequent meal -- that all come together to share the micro details of the macro life, picking up strength to stand equal to the challenges of living. It is to the hearth that the kings return after politics, or soldiers after war, or artists after performances, or players after tournaments, or teachers after imparting learning, or students after school or college ...! So, there is another word to be added to the definition -- Home is where heart is! For, all these are representations of where our heart is -- in our own people, our own place, our own little domain -- where we are kings and queens and princes and princesses! As the lock-downs confined us to our homes, we had a chance to realise, relive this definition -- Home is where hearth -- and heart -- is. Many of us did understand the importance of these simple words in practical as well as emotional terms. But there also were many who did not -- or refused to understand.

 

That was out of sheer habit and sheer defiance of common wisdom. They did not attach any importance to the home-cooked food -- that brought with it not just the culinary creations, but also emotional fulfillment. Such people often looked outside their doors for satisfying their taste buds. Countless numbers of people in our society leaned terribly heavily on eating out, or seeking help from home-delivery systems. That grew almost into an addiction in large numbers of people. The lock-downs underlined this all the more in many families. In that sense, these people defied the traditional wisdom that ‘home is where hearth -- and heart -- is’. Hardly do such people realise what they miss. They do not miss just the home-cooked food, but also the flavour and flair of love it embodies. By any definition, that is sad. Of course, there are situations when cooking at home is not possible. And such situations do not crop up every day. Still, there are people who refuse to understand the importance of the concept of hearth. They are the losers, after all!