About roots, land and space

I am back to the place we jokingly refer to as 'Bloody India'. The country that I was born - my 'desh'. But i ask myself is India really my 'desh' or is it West Bengal? My grandpa used to be from Opar Bangla (now bangladesh). So my roots go right till there. Or does it go back further?

So who am I? To whom do I owe my allegiance? Does it get decided by birth? Or does it get decided by the langauge one speaks? Which is MY territory? Certainly not the sambar slurping, curd rice eating south of India. So where do I belong?

Is it important to owe allegiance or to have your own territory? I have never understood it. But in Bangalore I do feel displaced some times. Its the same for me to be in Copenhagen or Bangalore or Chennai.

Whenever I talk of going back to my roots it reminds me of Calcutta. I feel I belong there. But I have no longings for this place as well. Nor do I long to settle down there some day. I am happy that I was born in Calcutta and that I spent most of my formative years there. But I am eqally happy and at peace to be not there now. I have no grudges, infact a lot of fond memories. But all that does make me pine to go back.

Is this phenomenon common to our generation? Something which afflicts even the great Amartya Sen who considers himself a citizen of the world. And it doesnt stop there. And it can go on and on till you reach the end of the Universe. I realize that it is futile. What is good is good. What is bad will improve or perish. So there is no point pondering.

Each feels for someone or something based on his instincts. And so long that instinct is not getting doctored I see so reason why someone should be stopped from feeling the way he feels.

Are we moving to a society where land will stop being vital and all of us will have their own virtual space? Physical land always had its limits and thus the central cause for most of our miseries.

Virtual space has no limits. But we still need to eat, sleep and relax somewhere. But 'How Much Land Does a Man Need'? Tolstoy's Pahóm needed just "Six feet from his head to his heels" and may be a little more if he was alive like you and me. And the rest can all be in virtual space.