Hiraeth

Hiraeth- A homesickness for a place that you cannot return to, or a place that never was.

Amongst life’s most complex tortuous complexities is the concept of peace. Isn’t finding peace the ultimate intent in all our lives? Earning all that money, hurting all those people, stretching ourselves beyond our limits and yet we do not find peace! A man can have everything and yet have nothing. What is that unbearable thing about us humans that we constantly seek something better than what we already have? And in the process, we end up damaging everything that we already have.

Home is where peace is or any place or person where you feel peaceful is your home. And most of us are living in illusions of it. We are forgetting the basic purpose of existence. Imagine the caveman, all they needed was food. Were not they happy? Were not they satisfied with life? You may blame evolution and what not but the fact will not change. For what good is all that you are striving for if you cannot create, take care of people who matter, bring a difference in someone’s life, even worse, find your home, find a place or person whom we cherish as a peaceful entity.

Most of us have Hiraeth. We do not know what we are doing, why we are doing and yet with our eyes closed, we are doing it. To please the society, your family, to showcase that we are settled. The question to be asked, how many of us are truly content with it? The poshest phones, the costliest brands, the hippest clothes, the most ravishing outings and yet when we need someone to talk to or when we sleep in the night, there is a longingness to be somewhere better! Eventually, there is no home, there is no peace.

It is all faded, and we keep telling ourselves that we are not alone. You do not need something extraordinary, you do not need that big fat bank account, it is not mandatory! You just need to know what you actually need. Desires are good, only until the time, they do not stop killing you from inside. You can be the most popular social media fanatic amongst your friends but haven’t you ever felt if someone would actually embrace you and whisper ” It is not worth it, what you are doing.” Haven’t you ever felt like running away, leaving behind everything? When you close your eyes and scream from inside, does it ever feel like everything is like you wanted it to be?

That is how we are made. We do not get everything we want, and we keep running for what we do not have. And hence, there always will be Hiraeth. Not having does not mean not living. No one will ever check your bank account when you leave this earth. They will just remember whether you were joyful in those last few days!

Count, despair into me

I run for the nothingness

To please you all

For what is it worth to me

Am I even alive?

On my feet I beggeth

I am fed up of feeling Hiraeth

The Author’s latest novel, India Shining is one of the top-rated thrillers of 2017!

It is available on Amazon.in