Migration, Roots, and a could-be terrorist
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Nitin Sawnhey starts the song by repeating the word 'dreams', which appears to contradict the struggle of parents, we hear them say how much they sacrificed and very humbly say that with god's grace, their children are 'okay'. I don't know if this is brown culture-coded, but having listened to them talk reminds me of my own parents, it's exactly how they describe their migration from their villages to have come to the city and build everything from scratch for my brother and I. Coming back to the song, I believe it's the child of the migrant parents who are singing the song because there seems to be this disconnect between their parents' struggles and sacrifices as opposed to this kid who is now, supposedly raised in this new country. I can very much relate to the lyrics but what stayed with me is, "I can almost touch the soil beneath your whisper," here touch your soil means roots, a word used to associate where one comes from, a familial attached meaning. Soil plays a sentimental role, especially in South Asian culture, and here I can assume when the migrant parents would speak about their home/land, how roots 'jadh' or soil 'mitti' would stick around with the kid. It almost creates a link between the distant left homes and the values the parents are trying to instil with their future generations to take forward.
The melancholic migrant can be seen as a "could-be terrorist" because their focus on past trauma is viewed not just as a personal issue but as a threat to society. Their attachment to past suffering expressed through anger, pain, or misery creates anxiety in the national consciousness, turning them into a figure of fear in that society and environment. By refusing to let go of what is perceived as lost, the migrant is seen as acting in bad faith, which disrupts "national happiness" and risks affecting future generations. This potential transformation into a threat is driven by the fear that unresolved grievances could lead to radical actions, making the melancholic migrant a suspicious figure.