where is my home?

What is home? Have you ever tried to answer this question? Have you ever realized the importance of your home in your life? Or have you ever tried to figure out the difference between your life and any nomad? What kind of culture do nomadic tribes develop? Does their home serve any other purpose than protection from sun and wind? If not, then what are ‘those’ other purposes that our home is meant to serve?
How will you celebrate the festival of Diwali without a home? How will you fly ‘kites’ during particular festival without a terrace on your home? Why some particular house stands out in a colony when there is a marriage function in that house? How come we recognize the religion of a person just looking at his home? Why Goan houses are different from Maharashtrian houses? Why Kashmiri houses are different from Rajasthani houses? And why American houses shall be different from Indian houses?
If we try to answer all these questions, we will realize that a “home” is nothing but the extension of a person, extension of a family, extension of a life and built-form of a lifestyle. The ‘home’ is physical form of one’s culture, lifestyle and religion and that is why we can make out the difference between a hindu and a muslim house. Similarly a sailor’s house has to be different from a potter’s house.
If you try to observer carefully, you will notice that traditionally built houses reflect these properties more significantly. If you move to villages the difference between houses will be more prominent. Why so? Don’t we follow religions in cities? Or the architects see all the people living the same lifestyle? Why all houses look similar? And if your neighbor lives totally different lifestyle and if you still have similar kind of homes, I think you must ask yourself ‘where is my home?’