I am coming home ......

Yes, the countdown has begun.....in 3 days time, I board the flight and yes, I am coming home!

Some are surprised that after almost 8 years in my current adopted desert land, I still call Kolkata "home"........but those who know me better, understand.

Restless as my spirit is.....despite its love for the unknown....its wanderlust...."home" for me, will always be "where the heart is" and my heart is definitely in Kolkata.

Many of my NRI friends try and convince me that this is my sheer romanticism, that when faced with the realities of life back home, my feelings will change....I doubt it very much. I don't think any other place in the world will ever feel the same. 

And I have been blessed to travel a lot, from a very early age - seen many different countries, cultures, communities - but yet, my feelings remain unchanged. And I believe it will always be this way.

I firmly believe one must know and acknowledge one's roots - its very important for one's identity; I may not like where I come from, but it is a part of me, it definitely has shaped me in some way and I need to understand that and acknowledge it. I may want to change my future - I may want to move to another world and pretend to belong there - but does that really ever happen? I doubt it and feel pity for those who sincerely believe it does .....


As for me, I know my land and my hometown has more, far more than its share of troubles - its future may not exactly be as "shining" or as "incredible" as we'd like to believe. I may even shudder a bit at the incessant honking on its streets as I drive out from the airport, at the lack of basic hygiene and cleanliness that seems all around, at the poverty that literally hits you between your eyes .......yes, I am not blind to our many many faults but neither am I completely disillusioned by them all. I do not feel we have lost all hopes for our wonderful nation - just as I would never give up on a relationship that mattered to me, how can I give up on a country that has given me my identity? 

I think as NRIs, its all the more important that we remember that ....that we teach our kids the same..... they may travel the world, they may experience diverse cultures as I have, but its important that they "know" their roots - that they acknowledge the same.


I am still hopeful that, as in the words of the Nobel Laureate poet, my country will "awake".....and soon!

Where The Mind Is Without Fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake 

Comments

  1. How I agree with you. ..home is where the heart is...one must acknowledge and accept their roots! very aptly written :)

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