Aches and Longings
All it took was a random Instagram post of an acquaintance who was reading a vernacular book. A rush of sorrow resurfaced yet again, making me wonder. Can you miss a place as much (if not more than) as you might miss a person you dearly love? This feeling came to me at different points of time, and in varying intensities. It happens when I see visuals of Nungambakam, where I spent five of my most formative academic years. It rushes over me when I listen to "Roja". It is there when I watch "Mouna Ragam" or when I have a sudden urge to write something in Tamil. The intensity is a lot more when I think of my parents back home - which then makes me wonder, what is "home"? Is "home" only the place which has seen me grow up and where I have lived for most of my life? Or could it also be the place which saw my personal transformation, although I have been here only for a short while? Or is "home" made up of the people who reside there, li