Home – Again | Freestyle

Local Masjid (مَسْجِد)
(Mosque) in Side, by M. C. Dutt

Home – Again |
Monday – August 17, 2026

Home, sweet home... They say. Because after all, why should my home be confined? Why should my home be defined? Why should home be preordained, read "My Views on 'Neighbours'"? Am I destined or am I right where I belong? Again, a home is not merely a house or an apartment, or even the country you happen to reside in. A home is a community, a society, something that transcends time and space and individuality; a home is something that is not defined by one person alone, and something that is not dependent on the moment. Yes, in our world it is very much necessary to define a home by what it is not, by the negative, which perhaps and hopefully should be telling enough, read "Modern Civilization".

    Yes, I am now officially back from my trip in Side, Türkiye, read more about that here, and I must say that this is a good time for reflections and for commentary. I was never afraid when I was in Türkiye, but I do recognize that the internet carries with it certain issues, and more to the point certain issues that tend to make life harder for you, if you refuse to be politically correct. Now, it is my soft policy to refrain from politics and everything about dirty games, but even I must sometimes allow myself to make certain comments. Now, it is not my intention to write about politics in this post, but I was, whether I liked it or not, affected to a certain extend by turkish politics, and if anything was clear when I was in Türkiye, it was certainly that there was a certain tension between the feelings on the countryside and the feelings in the cities, and this tension was perhaps more palpable between the youth and older generations, but I have already made these observations elsewhere, read my "Vacation series".* It is also true that while the Western spirit and the humanist confusions are flowing quite freely in Türkiye, there has been some backlash towards this, and I suppose that much of this backlash, reaction as some would call it, is welcomed in certain quarters, read "Why I'm Not Conservative".

    Now, from a practical perspective, the first thing that struck me about Türkiye was the unorganized nature of the country, especially the airports; I had to run through an ocean of humanity in order to get into my home flight, a very exhausting experience, and queues, queues and jams, traffic jams, everywhere. Indeed, I must have been stuck in queues of one kind or another for nearly 12 hours. In fact, I almost missed my flight home because of this, and I could feel the sweat running down my back and my body once I eventually got onto the aeroplane. I also had to pass through two security checks at the airport and then the passport stamp and a check before that; checks and borders and boundaries everywhere, all serving to slow down everything. I wonder why they conceived and if they ever conceived of this organization of the airport, or if this is simply an evolved product of chaos? Of course, I did arrive late at the airport because of the traffic jams leading to the airport; I believe that I was about two hours late because of the traffic jam. Now, I did manage to get onto the aeroplane in time, but one fellow passenger did not make it, and I can only imagine that they likely must have gotten stuck as well in some kind of jam or some kind of queue. For that reason alone I cannot recommend that you travel to Türkiye, unless you actually favor dealing with these situations. Now, you may say that it was all my fault and that I could have booked my transfer earlier, but the fact of the matter was that the transfer was not booked by me; the transfer was booked by the middle man, the travel agency, and they decided that the transfer should have arrived at the time when it did arrive, and I suppose that they are to blame for not taking the potential of traffic jams into consideration. Again, I arrived almost two hours late at the airport, which is why I had to run to the gate, and of course the gate could almost not have been located further away from the start of the international terminal. I must say that my arrival was far more practical and expedient, but I did arrive early in the morning and I did depart late in the evening, and in the end I do believe the aeroplane ended up leaving about an hour too late, but again I was not the only person who arrived late at the gate. I do believe I must have arrived about 40 or 50 minutes after the initial boarding. As I stated above, one person was unable to board the flight because of this chaotic situation and because of that the flight was further delayed, as they had to remove that passengers checked in luggage, apparently for "security reasons". So, it was not as if they removed the luggage out of consideration for the passenger, and I must also admit that I think that the whole matter might have gone quicker had they just waited for the passenger, but this I cannot know.

    Now, as I have already stated above, and elsewhere, I consider my home to be something quite different from my house, but for colloquial reasons I suppose that it could be appropriate to use the term "home" to describe my arrival home, but know that this is not how I prefer to use the word home, for I find the colloquial usage of that term to be much too individualistic and based on something almost entirely different from what that term meant historically and naturally. Now, I could go on for some time about the things about Türkiye that were bad, but overall I cannot say that I disliked Türkiye or the Turkish people, and in fact I would even go as far as to say that I would consider returning at some point. Again, I am a busy man and I am also looking forward to traveling to other destinations, but as an entrance to the Near East I would certainly suggest Türkiye as a start, for it is not too hard on the senses. Now, this would perhaps apply in particular to Westerners and Western people, but the same could perhaps be said from a different perspective with regards to people from the Far East or even the Middle East, again take care to note my usage of the term "Near East". So long Türkiye and the Turkish people; I am sure that we will meet again.

Reginald Drax (AKA, M. C. Dutt) – August 17, 2026.

Footnote(s)

* For more on this I direct you to my posts: "Modernity Breaking Through", "Surviving the Test of Time", and "In The End".