House: Rented, Home: Own

Hi Everyone,

If you are putting up in a rented accommodation with or without infant(s) you would know what exactly my point is:

You are in one corner of the room and suddenly you realise few fingers dabbed in ketchup or coated with chocolate are about to rise and smear it all over the spotless walls. What’s your reaction?  Suddenly you don the hat of a sprinter, covering miles in nano seconds just to foil the attempt to taint the walls.

Let’s peep into another situation.  You want to adorn the walls with memories of your vacation and you hesitantly go ahead and hang those precious moments on the walls.  Next time when the guest called “Owner of the house” visits you, instantly gives you a look from the corner of eye as if saying “you have nailed it” which you can literally😁 and very smartly puts across the proposal for filling and painting of walls, courtesy: your wallet.

There are numerous rules to abide by other than to pay the rent on time.  Many could be hilarious too (from an aerial view).  For instance a family of four has been allotted a limited quantity of water to be used in bathroom and WC per day.  Now what if a member of family has an upset stomach?  Is overdraft of water allowed?  No lights to remain turned on after a particular point of time in the evening/ night, no non-vegetarian food allowed within the premises of house, don’t put the foot firmly on floor as it could disturb the peace of people underneath and many more meaningless (from my point of view) rules are set that needs to be strictly adhered if one wants a roof over head.   Things could become hard to ugly for single women or bachelors if the country of residence is India.  For years I have seen property owners to give preference to families over singles.  If you are single and searching a place where you could fit your furniture as well with yourself then your conduct certificate carries more importance than the salary slip.

People in India (more often), read tenants, abide by every unreasonable rule put forth by the property owner’s rent manual.  Reason: fear of being awarded the notice to vacate abruptly for we still have a huge proportion of real estate as unorganised market.  And in such scenario who cares.

By God’s grace my family then (before marriage, India) and now (after marriage, Belgium) have never been and seen such a horror.

But yes I must confess we did pay a huge sum to the property owner of our last address for the damages on the walls (luckily some amount was covered under insurance😌).  And with two kids our struggle to handover the current apartment (at the end of lease contract) in its original form as it was given to us continues till date.  Sorry notes to rest of the residents of the building for the inconvenience caused by high levels of decibel originating from our four walls thanks to our kids is an addition to maintain cordial relations with thy neighbour😇.

Coming to my next point, how to differentiate between a house and a home?  Simple:  If you can let the Picasso in your kid paint the walls with their imagination without fear of being under surveillance then it is “home”.  Now please don’t take my words literally😉  because when you have an expensive paint coat covered by scribbles it definitely hurts.  What I mean to say is when you can let your dreams unfold without being bound by limits and regulations, that roof, which you can call your own is “Home”.

At this point I would like to add that not everyone is fortunate enough to own a house, I mean property.  In such a situation

House = Home

Provided love dwells and dreams are nurtured.

 

 

 

 

via Daily Prompt: Abide