The Pain Of Leaving One’s Homeland

By Prakhar Patidar

There is an unexplainable inclination one feels towards their homeland that only strengthens the farther one goes from it. We all find faults in the cities, states, countries we live in but despite all that in the corner of our hearts there is a special place reserved for the place we are born and raised in. Growing up in any particular city/country does that to an individual. These experiences mold an irreplaceable room for our homelands that no matter how far we go, we always yearn for all the little things that make our homeland.

Poets and writers have written about the nostalgia towards one's homeland time and time again. The yearning for the soil of one's land has been a common trope in the literature about those who leave for war or other purposes and wish to be home soon. This is the exact reason why so many diaspora writers talk about a displaced sense of belonging one falls prey to when they leave for another country. They know this feeling too well. From Jhumpa Lahiri to Khaled Hosseini, all writers who have two nationals to call home have written about being lost somewhere in between these two homes.

silhouette of person standing on hill during daytime
Kabul, Afghanistan – Unsplash
Photo by Mohammad Rahmani on Unsplash

As Afghanistan faces a historic political change that has caused citizens to flee in terror to save the last strands of existence that resemble the life they have known so far, the importance of one's homeland and the pain to have to leave it has once again brought to our attention. One can't help but wonder what must it feel like to have to flee from a place you have lived all your life or to have your home wiped clean from what you see as the future. This is as extreme as things can get. Citizens are drawn to the absolute limit where running is the only option. The narratives that come out of this time will haunt us all forever. It is hard enough to leave one's country willingly, imagine what must it feel like to have no choice at all?