Warm friendly homes…a rare breed.

Childhood memories brings to mind some strong and vivid associations

Sunday movies on DD when everyone stayed at home and religiously watched the one movie that was dished out on TV. Those times were also about the ‘family’ – we were too young to crib about family vacations being boring. Relatives often came calling un-announced…I guess since very few houses then even had a telephone! I remember that the practice of dropping-in uninvited continued even when the telephone had become ubiquitous. One seldom called a relative to find out whether one could drop in or not – unless relatives stayed so far away that finding a door locked at the end of a 3 hour journey was a possibility one did not want to face. Even on calling one seldom heard a NO…don’t come…we are busy today…kind of response.

No matter what time of the day one called in…I remember people mostly greeted each other with oodles of warmth, an honest excitement and loads of good food made with love. Well mostly...here we exclude the temperamental aunts and uncles...since they were not truly representative of those times. Houses were relatively smaller (perhaps that’s what lent a cozy welcoming air to them), some times unkempt, most often with un-coordinated upholstery. Bed rooms (and that time there were no separate guest bedrooms) were open for kids to go and jump onto the beds…beds that often doubled up as surrogate dinning tables on which people sat with folded legs around durries that protected the sheets underneath from curry spills. No one cared about paint chipping off from surrounding walls which sometimes had leaky patches too, or about clothes, toys and books strewn around since nobody bothered to look around and evaluate the room or its décor with a sense of judgment. What caught and engaged one’s attention instead - were the people and the atmosphere charged with a sense of belonging. It was a home and homes (at least then) were not supposed to look clinically clean and color co-coordinated. The chaos in the surroundings lent it that homely character.

These days homes with such character and the people who inhabited them are becoming extinct. Now-a-days houses appear well kept but un-inviting, formal…distant. People make an effort to do up their houses and their smiles meticulously – but somehow it shows…things look so made up!