Solitude and seclusion were thrust upon us because of the pandemic. Emotional closeness and physical distance made us globally explore our affective geographies under a new light. Physically far away but suddenly so near, our human craving for connection led us to structure our digital life by scheduling calls with friends and family.

In our globalised interactions, our notions of the near and the far are becoming even blurrier. There is a harmonious dissonance in co-inhabiting a real space in an imaginary location.

By being unable to connect physically with her parents, Aseela brings up memories of family migration when her grandma moved to Pakistan during Partition in 1947. We discuss separation and reflect on the privileges and paradoxes of experiencing the pandemic in Germany from a migrant perspective. Borders are arbitrarily drawn and imagined but they do have physical and real consequences on people’s lives.

What are we learning about the porous or not so porous borders of our thinking and of our nation-states? How does digital life change how we cultivate relationships? What if parts of our hearts are geographically distant from each other? Who have we revealed ourselves to be in the paradox of here and now?

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Aseela Haque (she/her) is a doctoral fellow at Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies. She is currently doing her PhD in human geography on the topic of urban informality in Karachi.

Get in touch with Aseela on twitter @aseelahaque or by sending her an email

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Follow us on instagram @intersectionalislands

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Podcast by Rodrigo Zorzanelli Cavalcanti

Music by Shanti Suki Osman