After a lifetime love affair with Rajshahi town where I lived, it hasn't been easy to leave it and move on. But circumstance sometimes offers us challenge regardless we want it or not. And so it happened. I could decide to see this change that suddenly loomed large on my horizon, this uprooting from my comfortably settled complacency, as an oppressive burden or as a door opening on new outlook, new people, new places, and new experiences. But saying goodbye to the land on which I could walk confidently even in darkness and to all I knew was really painful. There are memories in every turn of the path, in every ancient building or tree still standing. I didn't expect that all I knew, family and friends, would miss me. I knew that I miss them. But life is more than reminiscing the past. First, it's family and being where they are. Alternately apprehensive and hopeful, I weighed the pros and cons of what I would lose and what I would gain and made my momentous decision. I left Rajshahi for Dhaka, and then back to Rajshahi again after a pause of 10 years, empty hand! A few disasters along the way and many heartening events marked the trek to my new beginning. I discovered again how helpful and how kind-hearted friends and people are. I got a girl to marry, moved to Jessore, and find a home there. I married, got our daughter, and we, who had never planned to move from Jessore, especially not in my elder years, left all behind Jessore and journeyed onward Dhaka again, accompanied by dire predictions of disaster from some and encouragement from others. Everybody was right! And how readily hostility and friendship is offered by newfound and old people! Having founded our new rented home in the depths of winter of 1997, we found spring and summer and rainy and winter with unwrapping surprises years after year. I mourned the loss of my old homes, but spring brought me beautiful clumps of bleeding heart at my doorstep again and again. My daughter Scion burst into glorious clouds of white and purple. Now our son Shanan splashes of brilliant orange on a green canvas. I left behind countless bright moments both in Rajshahi and Jessore, but a home again filled with joy and agony hung from our lives reveals a wealth of newer memories. Today, I can truly say that I feel at home always. I've learned that home is more than just a certain place. It's a state of mind that we carry with us wherever we go.