“Long Distance Home” – A Journey Into the Heart of Longing
Some poems don’t just speak—they echo. They don’t demand attention; they earn it, gently, through stillness and sincerity. Long Distance Home by Rajarshi Choudhury is one such collection. Quiet yet courageous, reflective yet raw, this debut offering is a tender meditation on longing, identity, and the spaces we carry within us when everything else feels far away.
Awarded the prestigious 21st Century Emily Dickinson Award, Long Distance Home explores distance not just in geography, but in time, memory, and emotion. It’s about the miles between us and the versions of ourselves we’ve left behind, the ache of separation, and the quiet, ongoing effort to reconnect—with others, with love, with self.
“I live in constant dialogue with myself,” Rajarshi shares. “Every poem in this collection is a brave response to that internal conversation—a search for authenticity, born from heartbreak and solitude.”
Through verses that feel more like whispered confessions than crafted lines, Long Distance Home becomes both a mirror and a map—guiding the reader through soft storms of emotion, the stillness of reflection, and the eventual clarity of self-realization. The poems don’t resolve—they reveal. They don’t heal by fixing, but by sitting quietly beside your unspoken truths.
A resident of Bangalore, originally from Kolkata, Rajarshi is many things at once: an observer of human chaos, a sentimental realist, and an “eavesdropper on life’s messiness.” Professionally, he moves through the world with precision; poetically, he drifts—sometimes aimless, often inspired, always honest. His words are steeped in lived experience, filtered through a mind that questions everything and a heart that feels more than it lets on.
Long Distance Home is for those who live between realities—who miss places they’ve never been, who seek connection in quiet corners, and who find poetry not in perfection, but in persistence. The collection stands out for its introspective voice and profound vulnerability. As one early reviewer put it: “Reading this book felt like being handed someone’s diary, and finding your own handwriting inside.”
With this work, Rajarshi Choudhury joins a new wave of poets writing not for applause, but for truth—for the sake of putting something real into the world. His collection offers solace to anyone who’s ever felt suspended between where they are and where they long to be. It reminds us that home isn’t always a place. Sometimes, it’s a feeling we write our way back to.
📖 Book Title: Long Distance Home
🏆 Award: 21st Century Emily Dickinson Award
📍 From: Bangalore, India
📷 Instagram: @rajarshi6627
