Hiraeth!

I turned 28 this Wednesday. 28 years of existence. When I left home, I was 22. I couldn’t wait to leave home and have a life of my own. I never felt settled when I was there, always looking for something. Something unknown. I used to feel suffocated at times and wanted to run away. For no particular reason. I have had a very liberal upbringing. Always taking my own decisions. My privacy was never hindered. My friends were never judged. I could go anywhere I want, eat anything I desire for. Yet, there always exist a sense of isolation. As if the place I used to call home was never actually ‘Home’. I thought maybe this is temporary. Maybe things will get fine once I’ll leave this city.

And I did. In March 2011, I left my city in search of a place I could relate to. I visited a few places in India. I went abroad. But I never felt settled. I changed apartments but again the void was there. Everytime. In every place.

In these five years, or rather 28 years, I have been looking for ‘Home’, but failed everytime. When I visit my hometown, I just want to come back. I feel incomplete there. The moment I reach here, I just want to leave this place and go back. But ‘back’? Where? I never understood. I think I never will.

I realized that I have been looking for a place that never was there. And I think I will keep looking for it. Coz no matter where I go, no matter where ever I’ll live, I will never be at home.

There is a word for it in Welsh. Hiraeth”.“A homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was. Isn’t beautiful? This word. Hiraeth!