Eleven years ago, I moved to Maryland. In that eleven years, a lot has happened. I had a little daughter. I wrote five books (three published, two in the pipeline), This blog became big. I learned a lot and grew, as a Computer Scientist and as a human being.
And now, I am leaving Maryland. The bags have been packed, the house is empty, and all we need now is to surrender the keys, and take the plane out.
It’s shocking to discover new things about yourself, specially when you are forty years old, but the whole experience of moving from one state to another has left me emotionally drained in a way I could never have imagined.
When I left “home” to do my PhD in ’99, to be honest, I didn’t feel this sad. There was of course tears when my parents waved me away, but when you are leaving the shadow of the great Indian family to make it on your own in a foreign land, the sadness is but fleeting, overwhelmed as you are by this sensation of nervous excitement. And honestly, at that age, you don’t think that much.
Now I do. The first time it struck me, this sadness, was when I we had gone to Chicago (that’s where I am moving to) with my wife and daughter to look for places to stay. It’s when we finalized the place, that it became “real”, that the “red house” as my daughter calls where we used to stay, was now going to be someone else’s. Once back, everything became different, and the heart seemed to be getting squeezed in that invisible vise ever so often—the last time at the park where we went for eleven years, the last time at the grocery store, small places that I never realized I had become attached to, places and things that I had taken for granted as just being mundane elements of my mundane little life. Then when on the last day of my daughter’s pre-school, all her cute little friends all gave her hugs, and drew little pictures, and her teacher, got teary-eyed and made a most lovely little file by which to remember this last year, just for her (by the way how must it be for teachers to say goodbye at the end of every year?), I finally accepted it.
I am going to miss Maryland, more than any place I have before.
One main reason for this is of course my daughter. It’s here that we brought her home from hospital, it’s here that all her memories reside, and though I have Gigs full of pictures, they haven’t yet created technology to store the happiness, the exact sensation-map of the moment. I know that there will be many more such moments, but still, if you are a parent, and even not, you will know what I mean.
But it’s more. It’s as if, and I know this is a cliche, that I am leaving a part of myself behind. You realize that when we say “I”, we don’t just mean that which is in the physical space constrained by our bodies. We are something more. We are the comfort of sinking into our favorite chair in our favorite corner of the house. We are going to the grocery store, and knowing what’s where as an instinct, and the comfort (not that you consider that at the time) it provides. We are the good doctor who we trust, a cab driver who becomes a friend, a barber who knows exactly how to cut our hair.
And then when you move out to another place, it’s as if you have been ejected from this comforting sense of “the greater self” . You are not as whole as you were. You can of course tell yourself “I will be back one day” but, even if you do, it will increase your sadness, and not just because of what Bob Marley once said “The good times of today are the sad times of tomorrow”, but because you will discover that the place you once called home is no longer your home, that it has moved along (as have you).
So yeah. I am going to miss Maryland. I am going to miss this house. I am going to miss myself.
But I will have my memories. I will have that.
All these years I used to live in Maryland.
From now on, Maryland will live in me.
Farewell.
The Greatbong Blog & Podcast 
Thank you for writing from the Heart. Very relatable.
P.S. iPhone SE and the smaller iPad Pro.
Got me very very emotional, almost teary eyed.
Human beings, eh? Great post.
Seems like you will miss the grocery storebthe most. They dont have bigbasket/grofers for grocery delivery in Maryland? 😀
Can relate to your feelings being in the same boat – moving back to India in 3 weeks after 4 years here. I guess change in good and we usually resist change. Once we settle in at the new place we get used to it. Agree about the sentimental attachments though – was feeling sad throwing away my favourite shirt today since it was old.
I can completely relate with the feeling. I left Dallas in 2010..It’s been close to 6 years but it still is the place I miss the most..
All the best with your new work and I hope Chicago gives you and your family even better memories!
Maya.
Touching.
Lived there for quite a while and got bugged of the place soon….there was a limit to the number of times I could trudge around Arundel Mills:-(
But I guess, memories are more to do with the events than environment:-)
I have an ancestral home. My memories of early childhood, grand parents… comes alive whenever i visit it.
Arnab – very nice post. I have been reading your blog for years now and I think one thing that stands out (even more than the humor and the language) is the examples – and how deeply they strike you and relate to you!
Arnab – A very touching farewell to Maryland never to forget. Long live Maryland.
Did Apu feel something like this when he moved to big bad Calcutta in Aparajito?
Why is it that everyone mentions ipad/iphone in the first few comments? You don’t really distribute them do you? Did I miss some blog of yours where you mentioned something of this sort?
err, I did read your blog and I relate to it too, but was more curious of those comments.
Been following your blog for a long time…Very touching indeed..your farewell to the place you called home for a long time.
I went to school in Maryland and then lived in Chicago for 6 years before moving back to India. I guess you will love Chicago and it does have a small town feel with a good mix of big town vibe. The desi community is awesome. I too had the same feeling when moving from Chicago back to India a decade back.
to be honest, I didn’t feel this sad….totally relate 🙂
I to son(std 4): The moment your van leave the campus gate, papa and I start missing you.
Son: The moment I leave the house gate …I forget you. 🙂
Okay, I skipped this post. Like innumerable engineering graduates who dived into business, I have left places which I called home, more than once. And now, I realize, I just called them houses. One question though, I define myself as the crises I have faced. Any crisis that this city witnessed you face/overcome?
Never understood why people are so concerned with HOME thingy. Home is where I hang my hat !
Exactly the same feelings and thoughts we had when we moved from Calcutta to Mumbai, 10 years ago – and for the same reasons ( daughter was born there, hence those memories)