We all long to belong - belong to someone, belong to a place Then what is that makes a person leave the comfort of his home and seek new pastures? The world is not as we knew it to be. Globalization means that there are more people seeking out in the new world - the immigrants, the expats - people walking away from the known and familiar in quest of a better world. Home, the familiar sounds, faces, the food - the laughter, the memories of childhood. Your comfort zone, the place that gives you happiness. It doesn't matter where you go, you might just be changing cities or provinces, or maybe country or continent, the fact is that stepping out is a big part of our growth as human beings.
We all need to look beyond the view from the windows of our houses and step out far beyond the horizons. Travelling as a tourist is different than attempting to recreate the magic of home in unfamiliar places. You can never undo where you come from. It is integrated in you - it is who you are.
Over a period of time, you attempt to assimilate into a new life, adapting, and learning till you one day realize that you have created another home, new memories and you have been transmutated into something that even you don't recognize.
I find that although I have the advantage of having two homes, two set of values, two set of lifestyles, there is a conflict at times. The values are contradictory and exclusive at times. It doesn't matter where you live, your life is like an incomplete puzzle - a piece or two is always missing, there is always a sense of wanting to grasp a moment or a whiff of fragrance from your past, the elusive sounds of laughter or chirps of birds, the nostalgia of half-escaped moments.
Every immigrant you meet, will talk about something that they have left behind, some that they are happy to leave behind, and some that they carry with them. Selective memories are deceptive. What we recollect is neither facts nor the truth, but a version of our perception of events contaminated by the passage of time. We learn that with time, at times we accept it, and at others live in a world of imagined perfection.
We all need to look beyond the view from the windows of our houses and step out far beyond the horizons. Travelling as a tourist is different than attempting to recreate the magic of home in unfamiliar places. You can never undo where you come from. It is integrated in you - it is who you are.
Over a period of time, you attempt to assimilate into a new life, adapting, and learning till you one day realize that you have created another home, new memories and you have been transmutated into something that even you don't recognize.
I find that although I have the advantage of having two homes, two set of values, two set of lifestyles, there is a conflict at times. The values are contradictory and exclusive at times. It doesn't matter where you live, your life is like an incomplete puzzle - a piece or two is always missing, there is always a sense of wanting to grasp a moment or a whiff of fragrance from your past, the elusive sounds of laughter or chirps of birds, the nostalgia of half-escaped moments.
Every immigrant you meet, will talk about something that they have left behind, some that they are happy to leave behind, and some that they carry with them. Selective memories are deceptive. What we recollect is neither facts nor the truth, but a version of our perception of events contaminated by the passage of time. We learn that with time, at times we accept it, and at others live in a world of imagined perfection.
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