My home is my heaven. When people address a certain 'someone' as their 'home', I am unable to relate to them. Because for me, my home doesn't travel with me anywhere, it's my abode, my residence, my safe haven..It can't change with the people I am or I am not residing, because my home is my steady rock.

I haven't changed many homes so far. It might be a handful for some, but given the nomadic nature of people and their jobs these days, this number may be insignificant.

I was born in Haldia, and few months after my birth, we shifted to another, then another and the final apartment, till we moved to Lord Krishna's birthplace Mathura and left Haldia, at the age of seven. For the uninitiated, Haldia is a port town in West Bengal. A really beautiful place, both the river and the sea at an arm's length.

In Mathura, we lived in only two apartments, before we moved to our forever home in Noida. I was in high school that time. Interior decoration had been a long passion of mine, from very early years. I became invested in decorating my home since our Mathura days. My mom wasn't very keen in styling interiors as such, she still is a stark minimalist. And I was slowly immersing myself in the tonnes of design spreads in the magazines and coffee table books. Till date, this is my favourite genre to indulge in. I clearly remember the tiffs I used to have with my minimalist mom, when I used to demand for bits and bobs.

After we shifted to Noida, my mom had pretty much surrendered. The layout of the house was my responsibility , and I took full pride when the guests raved about the details.

Then I got married during the final year of my medical degree; and for the first time in my life, I was 'solely in charge' of our first home. It was a modest 2 BHK in Mayur Vihar, Delhi and those 11 months of our 1st lease were truly the consequence of my sweat. We couldn't afford house help as we both were students, so I spent every free minute of my day scrubbing. All our guests who dropped by were pretty impressed as to how cute a rented apartment could look.

Since our landlord increased the rent too much, we had no choice but to hunt for another place, preferably in the NCR. The location of our Mayur Vihar flat was magnificent, it was literally 5 minutes walking from the metro station. So we started searching places near the metro, so that I could have access to public transport, when the car was with my husband.

We landed a good deal in Kaushambi, Ghaziabad and it was a newly constructed 3 BHK, 15 minutes walking from the metro station. That extra bedroom became my closet and it was the home where I did my post graduation, started my first job, brought my first born home and ultimately became self employed. We stayed there for 5 and a half years and I cherish every moment spent in that home.

In the spring of 2017, we shifted to Noida, in our own home, three societies away from my parents', the home where I spent my high school, graduation and ultimately got married. Life has literally been a full circle for me.

I have been decorating and redecorating our home time and again. My style has drastically changed, tiny bits and bobs don't fascinate me anymore, unless they hold some serious sentimental value. Because the dust load is too much, and I have a tonne on my hands to spend my precious time dusting everyday.

So yeah, if my home could speak to me, it would say: I am your rock, your haven and your safe space. After exploring 33 countries so far, yes , I can confidently say that my home is my most favourite place to be. 

This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon