Houses, Homes and Angels
We now live in a house that once belonged to my parents and that we have since inherited. Two decades ago, every house in our colony was occupied. In our lane of 11 houses, only four are occupied today. The rest stand empty, waiting for demolition or renovation. In one sense, the houses are still there, but the homes have disappeared. And yet, quite a bit of construction continues around us—high-rises and flats coming up everywhere, as if the buildings had secretly decided to multiply. Of course there is huge money behind it too. Three decades ago, there were no high-rises in our town. Today, even in our sleepy small town, there are many. Within a one-kilometre radius of our house, I counted about seven. The nearest one has 16 floors and 64 flats, but at night I can see only about 10 lights on, which suggests that only around 10 are occupied. So the issue is this: we seem to have more houses, but fewer homes. Houses are buildings. Homes are where people live with care, sa...