Why Our Roots Beckon Us?

If you are an immigrant like me, you might have realized what I am trying to say. Why do our roots beckon us? Having lived in India for most of life and for a short stint in China, I moved to the US over four years ago. When we immigrate to another country, for the immigrants it is like leaving their country, their culture and their people and embracing another which might be totally different. Especially if you immigrate from the east to the west or vice versa. You get accustomed to the different culture and also embrace it. But does it mean that you forget your roots? Do you forget your culture and don’t miss practicing it in a foreign land? Do your roots beckon you? If it does in this post, I will discuss why our roots beckon us?

“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”

~ Marcus Garvey

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How Finding Fulfillment in Life Links to Our Roots

The Other Side of Immigration

In this post, I will talk about the other side of the coin. And this coin is immigration. Although I have written about how immigration improves the quality of lives. But the aspect I would like to discuss here is, at what cost? What do we miss or sometimes lose forever? When we immigrate, even though we don’t forget our roots, our next generations mostly become disconnected. And sometimes the immigrant may face an identity crisis. This is for sure a topic of another post: why immigrants face an identity crisis? But in this post, we will focus on why our roots beckon us and how connecting back to our roots is part of our journeys towards finding fulfillment in life.

What Do We Miss?

Let’s say you move to another country and consider yourself pretty successful in terms of all your achievements. Still, do you face a void in your life? Is there something that you are missing? So, do you yearn to go back to your country of origin for various reasons, be it to spend time with parents or extended family? Or simply because you miss the old way of life that was so different? Since it could be the people, the food, the festivities, the landscapes, the walkways or the entire culture. It could be as simple as visiting an alleyway that you cherished walking by. Or visiting an old bookshops street from where you used to buy books in school or college.

Can We Find Our Fulfillment in Life When We Immigrate?

Then, when you miss these, can you still achieve your fulfillment in life? Hence, this might be a tough question. So, what do we leave behind to become global citizens or to give a better quality of life to our next generations? Besides, in this process, are we snatching something from them that rightfully belongs to them? Their culture? Their roots? Therefore, why do our roots beckon us?

Why Our Roots Beckon Us?

So why do our roots beckon us? Or is it just me? This is a question that intrigues all the millions of immigrants across the globe who emigrate from their countries to other countries for a variety of reasons. Most commonly for education and employment or, in a nutshell, in search of a better quality of life.

Parents and Family

The most important reason our roots beckon us is our parents or extended family, if they are back home. We are what we are because of our parents. And if our parents need us to stay by them in their old age, that is what we should do. Apart from that, the love of near ones back in our country keeps on pulling us like a magnet.

Because it is not quite possible to articulate in words, especially when we don’t have our parents anymore, their words resonate in our minds repeatedly. Since my mother wanted me to be near her back in my hometown and she used to say, “We don’t really need a lot in life.” Besides, it is the small things in life that give us happiness and make life beautiful. Sometimes we don’t understand these simple things in life and keep running after something elusive until it’s too late.

Food

On a less emotional note, it is the food that beckons us. In foreign countries, we don’t get our native food anymore in all its grandeur and flavor. This is especially when you moved from the east to the west. Since I moved from India to the US, I miss the plethora of diverse cuisines pretty much every day. Back in India, it is so easy to access multicultural food. If you can travel, you can avail more authentic food from the different parts of India.

Culture

Culture is a much broader term, which encompasses several things, including our food, ethnic clothing, festivities, music and celebrations. More so, India is a country of festivals. They say that in twelve months we have thirteen festivals. When we emigrate, it is difficult to stay connected to our culture. Besides, we embrace another culture and slowly forget our own culture; this is more pronounced for the next generations. Since they also don’t learn their native language. Most kids in foreign countries can understand their mother tongue but cannot speak it anymore.

People

When I say people, I mean a diverse spectrum of people back in the country. Especially when I moved from India to the US, there was such a stark change. Most of the people in India are poor, living with very minimal means. So their lifestyle and behaviors are very different, a lot of which are driven by economics. That leads to, they live much simpler lives.

Sometimes it might seem they live in medieval times to Westerners. But truly, life is so different in developing countries compared to developed countries. Since it is more of a struggle every day to earn a livelihood and support one’s family. Life is tough. But why do we miss it? Because there lie our roots. We come from there to a different, much privileged world. Where life is not so much of a struggle, for sure a much better quality of life is here. Then why life that we left behind us beckon us? This might be difficult to explain.

Maybe we just want to express our gratitude that life has been very kind to us. Blessed that our next generations have got a much better quality of life, in terms of opportunities for education, natural resources and employment opportunities. Truly, we are grateful. So, I think that might be the reason we should go back to our roots whenever we get a chance just so that we can appreciate what we have got. More so, I think this is a very important realization for our next generations as well that where they have come from. To realize where their roots are? What are their cultural roots even if they have imbibed another culture?

Land

Then there is everything about the land we come from that we miss. Because again everything in the new land is so different. Not that we don’t like the new land, but the land we lived most of our lives beckons us. Again, it is difficult to explain. It is a dilemma. Especially coming from a developing country like India, where rural or suburban India might seem backward or much underdeveloped, it seems like we miss that simplicity. That backwardness, even it is fraught with a lack of amenities, but still our roots. Sometimes, there is so much beauty in simplicity.

Can We Go Back to Our Roots?

So, can we go back to our roots, or do we want to? There are many immigrants who go back and forth between their roots and new homes, but finally, in this process, they realize where they want to be. For sure, we can go back to our roots, but this decision is usually not an easy one. Given considerations for the future of kids and opportunities and resources for them. But for the immigrants, it might still be a choice to consider, going back to the roots as much as they can. Shuttling between their kids in their newfound land and homeland that they left behind. Until they finally find the place, they want to rest forever.

Conclusion on Why Our Roots Beckon Us

In search of a better quality of life, what do we miss when we immigrate, especially from developing countries? There is so much that we miss in this process. We lose our identity, and our first generations struggle with their identity for years until, for generations to come, until we fully assimilate. Thus, our roots beckon us is not unnatural. Since it is very much a part of the immigration process. So this is also the other side of the coin, living the American dream!