A house is happiness, not sacrifice. If you build a house of your own, you
begin to revel in happiness. Father told me thus before he died. Father
never built a house of his own. As children, we liked our stay in
various rented houses. As father got transferred to different places, we got to
witness different landscapes, experience different weather, meet different people.
Only mother shed tears every time we shifted house.
It was into a rented house that I brought my friend as a bride. Amidst
our honeymoon celebration, she did not bother to worry about the house.
Gypsyhood is good. Tent life takes you places round the world. Gypsies
never carry the cumbersome. Discarding the dead by the stream, valley or the
railway track, gypsies never perform rites for their dead.
I used to tell her everyday. With the birth of our children, she changed as a person. My life was very different from my father's. Due to our continual
exchanges with the market, our rented house became heavier and bulkier. Bearing the
weight every time we shifted house became unbearable. That was how I was forced
to build one of my own.
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