The Address - Marga Minco — NCERT Solutions

The narrator wanted to forget the address because, after seeing the objects again in a strange house, she realised that things from the past lose their meaning when they are separated from their familiar home. The address had once symbolised her mother’s life and memories, but now it only reminded her of loss, change, and the impossibility of recovering the old life. She also understood that she had no use for those possessions in her present, poor living conditions.

The Address shows the human suffering and emotional damage caused by war. War forces people to leave their homes, lose their possessions, and live with insecurity. Even when some belongings survive, they no longer feel the same because the old life they belonged to has ended. The story highlights displacement, loss, memory, and the struggle to move on. It shows how war creates a painful predicament in which people cannot fully recover what they have lost, even when the objects themselves are found.