Samir Shukla
By Samir Shukla
Driving across America, especially on rural or country roads, every so often you’ll pass an abandoned home. Most people give them a quick glance, maybe even think the eyesore needs to be torn down. I have always been intrigued by these sad, deserted homes when I pass them. I want to stop, gaze at them, maybe even walk around the perimeter, and often wonder what happened here that the residents of the home abandoned it and left it in such a sorry state. I want to know the story.
Some of these homes are boarded up, others are slowly rotting away, maybe the roof is about to cave in or already has. They look like they were probably nice houses years ago, but now neglect has led mother nature to slowly overtake these homes, reclaiming them. This is what the earth does when left with land or buildings that humans have stopped fussing over. It blooms around and over it, erasing the despair.
When I drive or walk by one of these homes, I try to set a visual scene. Even a quick glance can give the visual story of a deteriorating home. What may have caused this abandonment? Did the family fall apart? Did the owner become incapable of maintaining it? May be the last person to live there passed away and nobody else wanted it. I can imagine a lonely elderly person living there, trying to maintain the place, hoping friends and relatives would visit more.
The aura surrounding such homes is like a sad song, a melody and words lingering in the air waiting for someone to tell its tale.
There is a bigger picture here. Our rapidly changing, hyper speed technological world has created a throwaway culture, a culture of isolation, neglect or abandonment. A shiny new object appears, and an older one is tossed aside, sometimes abandoned. We are so intricately and continuously connected by technology but at the same time are separated by it. Some folks may self-isolate, while some are neglected or abandoned.
Deteriorating homes, broken families, close-knit communities disappearing, all evoke a sense of isolation, abandonment.
What stories were lost and what history was erased after the last person living in one of these homes left or died. It was likely the home was filled with laughter, family, kids once may have run around the house playing hide and go seek, climbing trees.
Next time you pass such a home, take a pause. It may look like a derelict home, but for a moment imagine it unabandoned. The air surrounding it is likely to break into song with stories and history set to a melody of longing.
Samir Shukla is the Editor of Saathee Magazine.
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