Home Sweet(?) Home

Does a home ever get organized or feel complete?

When there's a clean place to sleep, cook, eat, and relieve, it should be enough to carry out daily life activities. But it's not.

^{Milky clearly disgrees. She visited this week.}

I realized it just now, home is a place that constantly evolves according to the comfort, needs, and preferences of its residents. It's organized in the morning and gets chaotic as the hours tick away. This constant swinging between order and chaos is proof of life - a life that tries to keep up. When that last leaking tap is fixed, the linen doesn't crease anymore, the dishes stop getting dirty, no dirty footprints in the hallway, no piles of laundry - is it when the house is organized...? But, uh-hello.... anybody there?

It turns out that having basics fixed is not sufficient to call a home - a home. I'm not implying the answer is in luxuries; rather, it's in comfort, needs desires, and preferences. A home is complete the moment it becomes your sanctuary and brings you happiness - it can happen with or without a leaking tap. In my case, termites, scorpions, and snake babies. Oh yes, termites are not going anywhere, I have to live with them. I put on my gear (a face mask for a shield and bug spray for a gun) and hunt those nasty bugs down every fortnight - this is life now. As if this ruckus wasn't giving me a good time, I have also killed three snake babies and 2 adult scorpions casually wandering in my home in the span of 3 days - the home where my kids stubbornly walk barefooted all day.

My husband mocks and says, one cannot wish for a more natural habitat in this synthetic world. I haven't mentioned lizards, frogs, and bees.

Some of these creatures come as a package with ground-floor flats and independent accommodations. The benefits of living on the ground outweigh the few perks of top floors, but it is this non-human life that makes me always question my preference because summers last for 8 months, and with it comes all sorts of unwanted guests.

Anyhoo, I'm talking about my new home, which is a little too organic, ecologically, for my liking but has solved half the pressing problems in my life. So, even if the material possessions are not organized, my life is.

As for the materials, I went for some home shopping in the city. Bought some more flooring for the hallway, curtains for my room, a coffee table, and some plants.

I'm in the process of making this space more homely. Hopefully, a cozy nook will keep my mind off the little issues of this place. Although, I'm having nightmares of a snake crawling up on my bed whose baby I killed last night at my doorstep. Can't wait for the winters to fend off these deadly creatures.