The issue of Rootlessness and Belonging - SAT item

Sir, 

I read the essays,  "missing out" from Granta.

I really liked the narrator's style of writing in "Missing Out". It is very realistic and life-like, and animates the reader by observing the simple things of life from an unique perspective. To sum up my emotions in one word- I found it really sweet. 

It basically depicts a person's longing for her own roots- her birthplace, culture, people, customs etc. It manages to convey a sense of belonging to the reader. When we are at our own country, say for example a third world country as ours, we usually complain about the miserable poverty-stricken conditions of the masses,  the dirty and chaotic streets, the horrifying traffic, and what not! But while living abroad, at a certain point, we tend to miss even the things we utterly despised at our home country. This is exactly the case with Samra who, after marrying Majdy and going off to London, could not cut off her ties with her homeland. At first Majdy regarded her behavior as "homesickness " but soon he realized that it was something more than that. It was her unbreakable bond and deep love for her homeland, whose memories followed her everywhere and they were, in fact, a part of her true identity. Majdy was well settled in London,and was reluctant to leave all its luxury and grandeur to go back to Sudan, his homeland. London for him was a place of opportunities, a dreamland compared to Sudan, devoid of all its political unrest and backwardness that hindered him from achieving his goals. He repeatedly tried to convince Samra to adjust to her surroundings, and take pleasure in London's modern lifestyle. But what she loved was Sudan's old, noisy fan, the old jar where her mom stored pickles for their neighbors, the sun lighting up their home's terrace, the uneven streets with all its puddles. 

It was no longer enough, as it once had been, that he was here, that he was privileged to walk London’s streets, smell the books of its libraries, feast his eyes on its new, shining cars.

He would walk on wet roads that never flooded and realize that he would never know what it would be like to say, ‘my ancestors built this, my grandfather borrowed a book from this library.’ London held something that could never be his, that was impossible to aspire to.

These lines show that no matter where we go, or how hard we try to shake off our so-called "embarrassing" homeland, we ultimately would end up embracing it as it is there that we truly belong, and it defines who we truly are.