Country road, take me home!!

Psychologists call it the “empty nest” stage and as painful as it is to confess, the empty nest stage has left its toll in my family as well. It is only natural for children to leave home for higher studies and to pursue a career and carve a niche for themselves and the parents are left alone in their homes reminiscing the times when their home were filled with regular chatter of children. Now their helplessness are magnified as they have no choice but to nurture fervent hopes that their children will soon come home and their heartache will soon be over, but for many unfortunate parents they have a higher price to pay as their children are never coming back home and that their “nest” will forever remain “empty”.

In a similar stance is my parents, they seem to be growing old fast. Staying away a thousand miles away from home doesn’t seem so hard now but it gets rough when I empathize my parent’s loneliness. Sometimes, I want to break free of everything and hide myself in the safe haven of my Maammy’s bosom or tuck myself safely in the protective arms of my Dad. “Its only a matter of time”, I say to myself but I know being a girl, I have other obligations as well. Life sure is too complicated now. Childhood memories beckons me to trace my steps back home but I guess I’ve walked too far away where there is no turning back or maybe it is just that my priorities are different now. It was so easy back then. Those days of sweet childhood when my Daddy used to keep me still in his lap so that he can trim my nails, that day when I was sick but had to go to school and Daddy came to school to give my daily dose of medicine, the day I feasted after school coz Maammy had a day off and she had kept dinner ready just to make up for all those days when I came home from school only to wait for her to return home from work with moist eyes!! I am sure many of my age mates are facing the same predicament. Every time I call home Maammy shares her dreams of having us kids settled in her vicinity, where she can see and meet every time she wants coz she knows that “distance” will be an issue as she gets old, and each time, it breaks my heart to realize that her dreams may remain futile, that somewhere down the line, either one of us have to compromise.

As much as parents of today are worried that their wards will never return home or that they will bear loneliness during their old age; the children are sandwiched between their responsibilities towards their parents and their own priorities of having a fulfilling career and pursuing their dreams. Each way it is not easy. Generation gap, consequences of globalization or personal call, whatever we say but its worth pondering where WE are heading to!! Its indeed a tough road ahead. 

*Dedicated to all those staying away from home