What Makes a Community Feel like a Community?

What makes a community feel like a community?

I grew up in India with a huge family including 8 cousins living in the same vicinity. Our relatives, family friends, neighbors, and even the shopkeepers in the area were like a family. From the very beginning of my life, I always saw that community plays an important role in our upbringing. A good community supports you in need and makes your life easy. As a community, we celebrated every occasion and festival together. We had a couple of families in the community working as housemaids and cleaners, they had very less money to afford new clothes and sweets during Diwali and other festivals. But the whole community took care of them. All other families made a list of things to provide festival essentials to such houses and divided the responsibilities among themselves. In this process, every family will pay their share according to the income and help others to enjoy the festivals. When I was a child, I always thought that we have a strong and wealthy family and that's why we had an unforgettable childhood but as I grew up and become a teen, I understood the importance of having a good community support. My mom was in depression for a couple of years after her brother was shot dead in the line of duty. She was mostly in bed and my father had to go to the farm, leaving no adult to take care of the home. I am thankful for having such a supportive community. Every day one or the other auntie would come to talk to mom and bring food for us. It was a hard time for my family but with the help and support of our community, my mom recovered. For me, it is the love, affection, care, and nosiness of neighbors that make community feel like a community.