Time flies. It feels like yesterday that I flew back to India, went into institutional hotel quarantine and reached the safe haven of my home. As per my calendar, it has been exactly one year. In this blog post, I reflect on my decision of having come back to my country!
I have thought about this decision a lot. I remember staying up long nights in bed pondering whether I should fly back or not. There were multiple ways for me to extend my Visa, but did I want to do that? From the eyes of society, I could be considered really stupid, who gives up the amazing instagrammable country sights, for the mess that India offers, right?
The answer required some soul searching. It required digging deeper into my own self and make sense of what mattered to me more, and be at peace with it. So I made the choice of coming back. Trust me, when people say those who go abroad go for good and never come back, are generally speaking about a dominant trend that they see, but it doesn’t happen to every single person.
Reasons to be grateful for
If I could go back in time and have another chance to make that decision, I would probably choose the same thing that I chose an year ago. For me happiness does not lie in exotic locations or whatever it is that makes people go on and on about settling abroad. Happiness for me lies in the below mentioned factors, which were key to my decision of coming back, and I will choose them over and over again:
- Family and friends: I love the idea of home, a place where you can be vulnerable, where you can be you. I don’t mean this geographically, coming back to a ‘building/house/flat’ that one calls home, but the sense of warmth that home has attached to it. Truly, home is where the heart is. As I knew where my heart was.
- Sun: I love the Sun on my skin. Over the last few months, there are multiple books that I have read that advocate for having some sun exposure (with sunscreen, ofc). It makes everything bright and shiny. From experience I can say that the gloomy winters take double the amount of effort in uplifting my mood and I prefer light any day, to darkness.
- Culture: I love the traditional diversity and culture of my country- which honestly I haven’t seen enough of. I would love to travel to other places beyond India and see their culture too, but would always want to come back to mine. Diwali is not Diwali unless it is at home, period.
- Sense of belonging: This is self explanatory in a way, but I will share my thoughts. I did not wish to part with my identity of being who I am, where I come from and what makes me me. It was a delight to live in a different country and I would like to do that in the future to come as well as a tourist. Having said that, I would want to come back home.
- My story: I did not want the story of my life to be the story every one is telling. I wanted my story to be different, to be brutally me, even if it contained hardship. You might disagree with me, and that’s totally okay. It’s just about priorities, ours are different and I am sticking with mine.
Global problems
The world is a giant mess of challenges right now. We are so far away from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, but I think it is not just upto the government to do it, it’s up to each individual. So instead of whiling away our time pointing out how many issues a place may or may not have, let’s put it to good use by reflecting on our lifestyles and making meaningful changes, that make a contribution to society/the planet as well.
My mentor, Dr. Daisaku Ikeda says, “No matter how complex global challenges may seem, we must remember that it is we ourselves who have given rise to them. It is therefore impossible that they are beyond our power as human beings to resolve.” Simply put, if humanity can create challenges, it can also resolve them. Are you up for it?
P.S. My list of reasons to come back to India also contained gol gappe and aam papad ;)! It’s not as authentic abroad!
P.P.S. I don’t mean to undermine anybody’s choice through the above post. No offense.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
