linux: apache forbidden access to files in symbolic link directory

i have a directory in /home/user/ which i wanted to expose to the web server for web access

but i got a forbidden message everytime i accessed my files in that folder

i read somewhere that you need to have your actual parent directories with an x mode so i checked my /home/user directory
# ll /home/

then added an x mode to it
# chmod +x /home/user
# ll /home/

after which i did the same to its parent /home directory

issue solved ;)