Standing Like a Stone

They say when you leave home, you don’t just shut a door behind you.

You carry an entire world inside your suitcase.
The laughter of your loved ones, the warmth of your mother’s prayers,
the quiet strength of your father’s presence,
and the echo of your hometown’s silence beneath the stars.

I carried all of that from Kashmir to Karnataka,
from the valleys of snow to the streets of sun.

It was not an easy decision.
To live miles away from home, in a place where even the language of a shopkeeper feels foreign
and the faces around you are strangers who may never understand what you carry inside,
takes more than courage. It takes a kind of strength you don’t know you have until you are forced to find it.

The Beginning of a Solitary Chapter

When I first arrived in Karnataka, I was lost not just geographically,
but emotionally and mentally.
The air smelled different, the food tasted different, and the people looked at me differently,
sometimes with curiosity, sometimes with something sharper.

I was a Kashmiri Muslim in a place where that label was enough to make people whisper.
Some smiled with warmth, others smirked with suspicion.
I learned early that silence is not weakness, it is survival.

There were days I would return to my small room, close the door, and just sit in the quiet.
No friends, no family, no one to ask if I had eaten.
But in that silence, I began to hear my own voice.
The same silence that once hurt me started teaching me.
It taught me how to stand, how to keep moving, how to believe in myself even when no one else did.

Working, Studying, Surviving

Life had given me two options to break or to build.
I chose to build.

While managing my studies far from home, I began working part-time not just to earn but to learn.
Every bit I made spoke of persistence, sleepless nights, and the quiet satisfaction of building something from scratch.
I wasn’t just making a living; I was shaping my own strength.

Sometimes I’d walk through the campus alone, hearing laughter in groups I didn’t belong to,
but my heart would whisper,

“You’re not alone, you’re just different, and that’s your power.”

There is a strange beauty in self-reliance.
When you cook for yourself, when you fix your own problems,
when you wake up not because someone told you to but because you must,
you begin to understand what it truly means to grow up.

Racism, Religion, and Resilience

Let’s not sugarcoat it.
Being a Kashmiri Muslim in a different part of India is not easy.
You carry an invisible weight, a mix of stereotypes, judgments, and half-truths
that others throw at you without ever knowing you.

There were moments when I wanted to scream,
when people made jokes about my home,
or treated me like an outsider.
But every time they tried to break me, I chose to stand taller.
Every insult was a test.
Every moment of discrimination was a chance to prove that dignity speaks louder than hate.

I learned to respond to ignorance with intelligence and to hostility with grace.
Because sometimes, being brave is not about fighting back it is about refusing to let their hatred change who you are.

Becoming Someone I Never Thought I’d Be

When I left home, I was just a boy who depended on others for everything,
from courage to comfort.
Now, I look in the mirror and see someone else
someone who has learned to live, to work, to dream, and to heal alone.

I’ve discovered strengths I never knew existed the strength to smile through loneliness,
to forgive without forgetting,
to believe in myself even when life felt unfair.

And perhaps the most beautiful part of this journey is that I’m still learning.
Every day teaches me something new,
about people, about the world,
and most importantly, about myself.

A Message to Those Who Feel Alone

If you’re reading this and you’re far from home maybe in another city, another country, another world altogether I want you to know something.

You are not weak for feeling lost.
You are not wrong for missing home.
You are not alone in your struggle.

But remember this you are growing in ways you can’t see right now.
Every night you cry quietly, every morning you force yourself to start again,
every act of strength that no one notices it all counts.

You are becoming unbreakable.

Standing Like a Stone

Today, I walk through life with quiet confidence.
Not because it’s easy, but because I’ve survived what was meant to break me.

From the misty mountains of Kashmir to the bustling streets of Karnataka,
my journey has been one of pain, patience, and power.

I am a Kashmiri, far from home yet carrying my home within me.
I am a Muslim, proud, peaceful, and resilient in the face of prejudice.
And I am me, stronger than I ever imagined, standing like a stone, unshaken by the storm.

If my story teaches anything, let it be this:

Be brave. Be kind. Be your own strength.
Because sometimes, the hardest roads lead you not to a new place,
but to a new you.