The Global Citizen Dilemma

Everywhere and nowhere feels like home.

Spanish by birth. Indian by origin. Raised across continents.

That sentence has followed me for as long as I can remember. It sounds neat when written down, almost poetic. Living it, however, has been anything but simple.

I was born in Madrid, a city that still feels stitched into my name. But my story never stayed in one place for long. My years in Mumbai shaped me deeply. My heritage ties me to India in ways that go beyond geography. And Madrid, despite everything, continues to feel like the emotional anchor I return to, even when parts of me have changed.

For a long time, I felt caught in the middle. In Spain, people would point out my Indian side, sometimes with curiosity, sometimes with confusion. In India, I was the one born in Madrid, the one who did not quite fit the expected mould. Too Spanish there, too Indian here. Occasionally even labelled angrez, half teasing, half not. It leaves you carrying a quiet question that does not always demand an answer, but never really goes away either. Where do I actually belong?

Over time, I have realised that the answer might be both simpler and harder than I once thought. Everywhere and nowhere.

I feel at home sitting on a terrace in Madrid, watching life unfold without urgency. I feel at home in Mumbai’s chaos, where the noise feels oddly familiar rather than overwhelming. I feel at home on long haul flights, suspended somewhere between time zones, where languages blur together and no one expects you to be just one thing. Those in-between spaces have become surprisingly comfortable.

Living this way is not always easy. It can feel unanchored at times. Rootless, even. There are moments when I envy the simplicity of belonging fully to one place, one identity, one clear narrative. But there is also something honest about carrying multiple worlds within you. About allowing different parts of yourself to surface in different places, without needing to rank them or choose between them.

Maybe belonging is not about planting yourself firmly in one spot. Maybe it is about learning how to carry home with you. Letting each place live inside you in its own way. Accepting that identity does not have to be singular to be valid.

This is the tension I live with. And over time, I have learnt that it is not something to resolve, but something to hold.

— Raulito