I recently listened to Pico Iyer's analysis of the real home of a person living abroad, on TED talks. (http://www.ted.com/talks/pico_iyer_where_is_home/transcript?language=en)
I stretched it to the identity of a person who lives in a place other than the place he 'belongs to'. This is something many of us face in our country - our parents leave their homes in their 'native' State and set up home in another State. The children grow up here with just an idea of their 'native' State. They go to study in a third State and probably end up working in a fourth State. Come time for marriage and setting up their own home, they may choose a partner from a different State. Finally, when it's time to retire, they may decide to settle down in quite another State! We are fluent in at least three languages, and quite naturally absorb the culture of each place we live in. So, when asked (as most Indians do on the first meeting!) : Where exactly are you from? or, Where exactly is your home?, the question of identity rears its head. Now if we can think of our identity as a mosaic, then there is no confusion in our mind. The colors that we give these pieces, and the patterns that we create as we blend all these cultures, gives us our own unique beautiful identity. Our identity then becomes a work in progress with constant upgrades, corrections and improvements - and no single piece in the pattern is cast aside as being inferior...no single piece can claim superiority either...