"There are many more sushi bars in Santa Barbara than I ever see in Kyoto, and my friends are all talking there of giving things up, going back to the country, finding a self that my Japanese neighbors have never had a chance to lose. It's a song of homesickness they're singing silently, perhaps, and sometimes it seems to rhyme with the songs of longing, or restlessness that surround me on the far side of the globe." Pico Iyer
***
When I'm homesick, I long for the smells, sights and sounds of Pakistan or the Middle East.
When I'm homesick, I long for the rhythm of the trains of my childhood. I shut my eyes on the subway and pretend I'm on the Khyber Pass Train, winding it's way from the Sindh region to Rawalpindi station with stops along the way for passengers and chai. I smell jasmine and immediately I am on the banks of the Nile River, a vendor attempting to sell me garlands as I laughingly refuse, only to be cajoled into the purchase minutes later. I eat a curry and am transported to the Marhaba restaurant where curry and chapattis are served and you don't have to pay for more sauce or more chapattis. I cry as I realize how rusty my language skills are and long to be back where I am using them daily.
When I'm homesick, I hear about a flood or a revolution and instead of thinking "Wow, I'm glad I'm not there," I rush to my computer trying to find cheap tickets that will take me closer to the disaster.
When I'm homesick, I sit at my desk, lost in memory, saudade gripping my heart. When I'm homesick, it's never for places in the United States. It's always for places far away, across oceans and continents. It comes with the surprise and might of an earthquake - unpredictable and initially paralyzing. I stumble along, ever between two worlds, never quite enough for either.
I have not been homesick for a long time, but yesterday afternoon, in an Indian store on a hot summer day, my heart felt a distant yearning and I knew what was coming. I knew that it was homesickness. Or rather, - that yearning for what no longer exists. The smell of samosa frying, the pungent aroma of a myriad of colorful spices, and a store owner who was chatting in Hindi on the phone were the sounds and smells of a world I left behind.
But then, as quickly as the feelings came, they left. I found myself alone and slightly disoriented, at home only in my yearning in the midst of a crowd on a busy, city street.
***
I wake up thinking that I heard the call to prayer and suddenly realize that this is impossible. The closest mosque is several miles from my home, and because of a noise ordinance there is no way even neighbors of the mosque will hear the sound. I sigh, and, for a moment, allow the pieces of my memory to come together, giving into a longing that is always lurking in the background.
I resolutely get up, my heart filled with profound gratitude. Gratitude that I have been able to live in, and experience, places that grab my heart and won't let it go.***
"I exist where I am, always between communities, always between places. I've found home in the yearning." - @i_saleem
