We talk about home like it’s a fixed point on a map. But for those of us who’ve moved countries, home stops being a location and becomes a question you carry everywhere.
I’ve lived least in the place that claims me on paper—India. The country that shapes how others see me, that lives in my accent and my family’s stories. It’s my origin, but not my daily life. And everywhere else, no matter how long I stay, I remain slightly translated. Always explaining. Always code-switching. Always aware of the invisible border I crossed to get there.
This is the paradox of living between countries: you belong everywhere and nowhere simultaneously.
Maybe the real answer is this: for people straddling multiple worlds, home stops being external and becomes something you carry inside yourself.
It’s the accumulation of all the places you’ve been. The person is shaped by constant negotiation between cultures—the ability to feel multiple belongings without any single one being complete.
That in-between space, that permanent state of cultural translation, becomes its own kind of home. Not because it’s comfortable, but because it’s authentically yours.
What You Gain in the Displacement
There’s something you develop in this homelessness: perspective.
You see how arbitrary borders are. How do national identities come to be? How similar people’s fundamental hopes and fears are across geographies. You learn to read rooms that others can’t even see—the unspoken rules, the cultural currents, the thousand small adjustments that turn foreign into familiar.
You become fluent in adaptation. Not just moving between worlds, but translating entire ways of being. Knowing when to code-switch, when to explain, and when to stay quiet and observe. You develop a kind of social intelligence that people who’ve never had to learn it don’t even know exists.
This is your superpower: the ability to belong partially everywhere, to bridge gaps others don’t notice, to make people from different worlds feel understood.
What I’m Reading
The Mindset - Carol Dweck (Still Reading)
This book explores how our beliefs about ability shape the way we learn, grow, and respond to setbacks. It’s less about motivation and more about awareness, noticing when we see effort as failure instead of progress. Reading it right now feels grounding. A reminder that growth isn’t about proving yourself, but staying open to learning as you go.
Crushing It! — Gary Vaynerchuk(Currently reading)
I’m genuinely enjoying this one. It’s all about execution. No fluff, no over-intellectualizing. Gary calls out your BS in a way that’s grounding, not performative. A reminder that clarity comes after action — and that most progress is just doing the work consistently, even when it’s uncomfortable.
What Else Dropped This Week
Off Script
Farah Meghji on Building Change Inside Healthcare—and Learning to Advocate for Yourself
How Kaylee Lieffers Built Blanka and Learned to Scale Intentionally
Under the Hood
Coach’s Comeback: How an American Heritage Brand Became Cool Again
Skin Deep
On My Reading Desk
We’re in a Golden Age of Founders Taking Back Control of Their Companies
I Hid Behind My Brand for a Decade. Here’s How I Unlocked Real Growth When I Became the Face of It.
6 Daily Rituals to Help You Stay Human in an AI-Driven World
Note to My Future Self
You don’t need to belong to one place to belong.
Your belonging isn’t broken because it’s scattered across continents, held in different languages, split between versions of yourself.
Nothing is wrong because you can’t point to a single map and say “there.”
Home isn’t something you lost.
It’s something you’re building quietly, across borders, among the people who see all of you.
Let go of the belonging you think you’re supposed to have.
Trust the one you’re creating.
You are enough.
Be bold. Be real. Be Anomalous.
— Sai Menon
New Debrief is out every Friday