They say travel makes you appreciate your home the best. You come back with new eyes and see your own space in a new light. Come back to the comfort of things known to you. Enjoy the carefree company of people who are a part of your life. You come back to the space that is your own little corner of the world.
Each traveler has things that they miss when they are traveling. There are those small comfort zones that call them back. Sometimes coming back is like taking a pause between two trips. In fact, I am writing this story after just coming back from a trip to Uttar Pradesh while preparing for another 2 week trip in the next few days.
Some of the things that I miss when I am away:
Meri Wali Chai
Chai or tea has precisely four ingredients – water, tea leaves, sugar & milk. But, no two people like the same type of tea. Everyone likes their own proportions of the 4 ingredients. Not just the ingredients are in the right proportion, but it should be served at the right temperature. Some people even like to have it in their own cup.
I like my tea strong, hot and with minimum sugar & milk. This is not what you get on the road. Lately, milk used in roadside shops has started giving me an upset stomach. Now, I switch to black tea or green tea on the road. In the hotels, I prepare my tea using tea bags and milk powder. It is not bad, but it can never match the brew I make at home.
So, the first thing I relish when I come back home is ‘Meri Wali Chai’.
I was watching this Asian Paints film where a travel photographer is admiring his work on the walls of his home while admiring the comforts that only a home can give. Have a look:
Come Back Home to Books
I often say that I live with my library. Home is where my books are.
I travel with my Kindle. Cannot be happier while traveling for just a few grams of weight, I can travel with 200 odd books on my Kindle. My wait time on airports, flights, train journeys is never wasted. If I have 10 minutes with me, I use them to read.
Having said that it is never the same as being surrounded by books. When I sit in my library and look at the books I have read – I remember each book by where I had read, how it made me feel. I can touch the book and talk to it. Surrounded by books is being surrounded by the hearts and minds that wrote them and by the ideas that they convey.
Read More – Top Travel Books to Read
Writing
When I am traveling, I am like a sponge – observing and absorbing. I want to see as much as possible, talk to as many people as possible. Yes, sometimes when I am sitting on an edge of a mountain overlooking the valleys – I can get reflective. I think even then I am an observer of my own thoughts.
To write, I need to come back home. It is at home that I can sit with my cup of tea and my laptop and write to my heart’s content. Unlike many bloggers who are digital nomads or location independent, I do not think I can write on the go. Ok, I have written a post or two while traveling, but I love to write from the comfort of my own place.
Dreaming
It is a strange phenomenon. I dream a lot and most of these dreams happen when I am at home, sleeping in the comfort of my own bed. I do not recall any dreams that I had when I was traveling. It’s possible that while traveling one is so tired that your sleep has no space to dream. In fact, since I try and see as much as possible, I usually end up having very little sleep while traveling. There have been times when I have hardly slept on a trip. I come back home and catch up by only sleeping for 2 days.
Read More – My top dream destinations
Food
We eat on the road, in the best-known restaurants in the cities we visit and we eat food made by the best chefs. It is fun to discover the culinary delights of the destination you are visiting. However, any traveler would tell you that after a while you start yearning for your staple food. I need my Daal-Roti, made in my own kitchen to nourish me – of course, till the next travel comes up.
People
We meet so many new people on our travels. I love talking to people, random people. There is so much learning that each of these conversations lends to me. However, it is the people at our residence and neighborhood that give you the comfort of reflecting on these conversations. It is here where I speak without thinking. Here, I speak in the language that comes naturally without making a conscious effort to be understood properly. It is when I am among the people who understand the language and vocabulary I use that I speak my heart and mind. I am sure, we all have our friends who we speak to without a purpose or an agenda.
It is the pauses that we take at our residence, that make our journeys so cherishing and make us feel there’s no place like home.
I somewhat disagree with this post Anuradha.
What about a homeless traveller? What about a nomad? What about someone who wants to travel with a permanent insecurity of not having a place to fall back on ever?
People raise families while travelling sometimes.
So I think “A traveler eventually must ‘Come Back Home’” is not so true.
Prakash, I have met many travelers who have spent decades on road – moving constantly. In the end, most want to belong to a place. Moreover, these people are a minuscule minority in the world of travelers. They get more press for the same reason. Most of us travel to come nack home.
Concept of home changes, places we call home change, but each one of us have a special corner in the world we call home.
some have homes on travel and njoy life in an innovative way.
i saw chile and other western travellers who walk..trek 4 six months from haridwar 2 badrinath night halts at any village, eat if anythin is offered day relax, siesta any hamlet on the way sleep on the grass or beds offered by villagers. drink water if nothin is offered.
nothin 2 beat the indian simplicity and hospitality they say.
return back 2 their country 2 work and save 4 the next trip 4 the next dham.
bon voyage and god bless such western travelers who know more abt. india than we do.
gr8.
We tend to take our own homes for granted Dr Karthik. That is why need to travel and come back and see our own homes with new eyes.
Hi Anuradha,
Nice post about travelers returning back home. I always miss the local restaurants when I leave home for a while.
Thanks,
Dennis
When I am home, I always eat at home. In fact, I am usually at loss of words when people ask for local recommendations for food.
True!! There is no place like home.. and it is such a relief being back after a journey..
Sneh, I oscillate between the two. When I am travelling, I sometimes miss the things I talk about in the post. When I am home, I itch to travel. I guess my formula is to maintain a healthy balance between travelling and enjoying the comforts of your own space.
Yeah, even I love coming back home after a trip! I also wrote a similar post a couple of years ago. 🙂 And yes, chai is different for different people. I like my tea with ginger.
yess, It is always lovely to be back at home and sitting in own couch with ginger tea.I am also a person who dream about travel when being at home and when travel for few days,think about go back to home
I have to find balance between them.I also love my comforts at home
Yes, Mayuri. Most of us need a perfect balance between travels and comforts of home. They both complete the perfect life if pursued in balance.
ma’am
the feeling of ” COME BACK HOME ” arises in every individual whether he /she is travelling or staying away from home for studying or any other reasons. I totally agree with the fact of food and chai.
Reaching home after travelling and eating that simple daal ( without chokh ) and roti ( with desi ghee on it )
becomes more tasty, than the butter chicken that we had last night. Not even food even the water tastes like some flavours are added to it.
Himanshu, you are so right. The humble Daal Roti sounds the best food when you come back home yearning for it. Good to know you also like Desi Ghee like me – I can live on Desi Ghee.
Yes ma’am .
I love desi ghee reason being, as I belong to a family of sweet making business , running our sweet shop for 5 decades and me
the 5 th generation into it . ????
Wow, that is good to hear. So you are a Khandani Halwai – which is your favorite Mithai to make?
Ma’am we don’t exactly make mithai , we have our shefs working for years on our shop , but I know the procedure of making all of them . ????
As u know the winter is coming and the north indians winter snacks is REWARI AND GAZAK which also we made .
And Ma’am forget to mention , a mechanical engineer too .????
wow interesting ma’am,
Thank you, Jyosha.
Person who like to travels likes to eat food.when a travel person returns to home he is much intersted to eat home made foods sitting on the sofa.Thank you for the post
Thank you for sharing this information