Globalization has confused the new generation regarding where we belong. I was born and raised in an Arab country. But my family background was Pakistani. Until I didn't go to live in Pakistan for my college, I was never able to relate to the country. My father would proudly tell us stories about how my grandparents had migrated from India to Pakistan on foot or about his childhood in various Punjab rural areas. But to me, it was as if he was talking about a foreign land.

I called the Arab country as my home. But I wasn't able to speak the language fluently. Nor was I able to interact with the locals. There was always a feeling of being an alien. Strange, when I was born there and lived all my life there. But it all made sense at the age of 18 years when I left for Pakistan.

I was scared going to live in Pakistan. I had heard of many horrific stories. Funny, how we tend to ridicule our own country. My friends and family around me had terrified me. Oh, how wrong they were.

Living in Pakistan opened my eyes. I could walk there without any fear. It was my home. My homeland. My language was spoken all around me. We shared the same culture. There were no elements of foreign or being an alien. I had freedom – something I had lacked all my life. The years I spent there are the closest to my heart and always will be.

Then I got married. The struggle of marital life and children never gave the opportunity to visit my homeland. Time flew, years passed, there was a need to show my husband and children what Pakistan is about. Over the years, it hurt to see how Pakistan had struggled – a nation built over sacrifices of our grandparents. We forgot the essence of the country. We neglected the countless lives that were martyred to develop this great nation. Today, it is known as one of the unsafe places on the planet. It saddens to know how we have never taken care of it as what its forefathers had dreamt of.

Few months back, I finally went back to visit my homeland. The nostalgic emotions I had when the plane landed were uncontrollable. Tears rolled down my face when I breathed the familiar scent of my homeland. When I had set my foot on the 'Pak sar zameen' (The land of the pure) I had tearfully smiled and whispered to my husband,

"I am home."

In the decade, that I hadn't been there, it hurt to see the world had progressed but very little changes were seen in the nation. I hope and pray that there will be a time we learn to value it and work towards to making the nation a better place to live in.

Indeed, how many years I live away or how far I will live,

My heart and my soul will belong to Pak sar zameen...