THE EMPTY NESTS NEED NOT BE EMPTY OF LIFE
“The beauty of an empty nest is the opportunity to cultivate a garden of self-growth” Unknown I was twenty when I left my home to find better prospects in Bombay. My mom must’ve just crossed forty and dad fifty. Of their five sons, the eldest, Franklin, had already left home, two years earlier, to be a sailor. They still had three more sons at home – Harry, Rony and Vivek. Harry left home to find work in Bombay, soon… In some years, Rony left home to find his new pastures in Kuwait, and so did the last son of my parents – Vivek. Very soon, he, too, came and settled here in Bombay… By then, Bombay had become Mumbai, and, with our dad gone to God’s home, our own home had become an empty nest… I remember, how my parents must’ve felt, when each of their sons left their nest. I remember, particularly, how my mother had felt when I was leaving… I was her favourite son. I was traveling from Mangalore to Bombay by a bus (first time). When I boarded the bus in Mangalore, she re...