Even though you may move on to bigger and better places, even though you might get settled there, even though you might enjoy your new home better than the old one, even though you might have better facilities there, even though it may be very convenient in all aspects… Someday you have got to go back home, to your city, to your roots, to YOUR place. It’s a thing deeply ingrained into the Indian psyche. We cannot, I think leave behind our own city for a new one, however better it may be, and even if we do, we like to come back once in a while and check things out for ourselves. Walk through the bazaars, stroll in the gardens, eat at the food-stalls and remark on the progress the village/town/city has made since we’d last been there.
I am exactly the same. I shifted to a new city three years back for better study opportunities and even though I loved my adopted city and hardly thought of home, there were days when I would miss my hometown so badly that I would just pack a single bag and hightail it back home over the weekend.
It’s like going on to discover the New World like Christopher Columbus. You land there, survey the place and feel, “This is good.” But after a while you’re like, “What’s going on at home?” That’s when you pack your bags, get a couple gifts for the Queen and sail right back into friendly ports. However decadent and war-torn the Old World may have become, it is still home and better than a few bags of potatoes and some tobacco. (If you know your history)
I studied for three years in Ahmedabad and now I'm back in Rajkot. I've realized the fact that wherever else I might choose to go, in the end I have to come back here. And it’s been a pleasure knowing my city again. In my first post, I wrote about returning to my city and wondering what to do. In case you were also wondering what I would do… I took the option of exploring my city again and I was quite surprised at the development that had taken place in the time that I was away. I learnt of things that were known to exist only in a Metropolitan and my eyes beheld such wonders that were not to be seen in the New World. I roamed in places that I knew not were even there and learnt so much in that one month that I was overwhelmed with awe for my own city, in which I earlier put not much stock.
I have even seen this tendency in a lot of Indians who live abroad. I'm not talking of those who were born of Indian parents in other countries, but first generation Indians who have migrated outside. I know of at least three such families who come to visit India every year. Even when I talk to some people who live abroad, they tend to miss their cities and wish to return, at least for a vacation, to stand on the land of their country, to feel the fragrance of her flowers, to taste the food of her hands and to sleep in her lap.
It feels really good to rediscover the Old World.
