As I pick some bits and pieces from own experience or observed facts, here is one that I seriously worked upon and wished to REMIND others to THINK ABOUT IT.
There was a particular discussion that went on between myself and a Govt.Official at Mysore.
He hurled a query.. Where are you from ?
I said " Bangalore "
He repeated " No No, where do you hail from ? "
I said " Born and Brought up in Bangalore "
He repeated " No, that is not my query. Originally where are you from ? Your surname says IYER. Where are your ancestors from ? "
I said " I have mentioned that in the form under the Nativity column. A Village in Tanjore Distt. "
He went on to ask " It has been filed. I know that. I just wanted to understand if there is any solid evidence on hand that you hail from that place ? "
I realized that here is a doubting thomas out to kill some time at my expense. I evaded his question and moved away.
But much before him, there have been multiple people ask me on multiple ocassions " ORIGINALLY, WHERE ARE YOU FROM ? ".
While returning to Bangalore, I felt THE FUTURE WOULD DEFINITELY BOMBARD PEOPLE WITH THIS QUESTION AND SEEK EVIDENCE.
My father usually goes twice a year to our native village. Although none of us have any holding there anymore, he stays in a hotel nearby and performs the yearly rituals and yearly poojas to our family deity, this time around, I told him to see if there are any distant relatives around and if any records exist that MENTION HIS FATHER AND ANCESTORS.
So, this time, we were lucky that a 90 year old man was still alive and active and one priest who had purchased his house from our distant relative existed.
The 90 year old man recollected our family and provided information to us about a person to whom my Grandfather and his brother had sold ancestral land and property and also an ancestor of ours who was a panchayat board president many many decades ago.
My father recollected that many years ago, he had travelled as a young teenager, all of 19 years, from mumbai, along with this father and signed as the Witness.
The 90 year old man also told my father that the purchaser of our ancestral property had in turn sold it to another person and he guided us to him.
That Gentleman in his late 70s, was all the more willing to look up our records in which THREE GENERATIONS were mentioned and all the signatures, including that of my father was seen.
When informed that it might come handy to us as EVIDENCE of NATIVITY, he readily obliged with photo-copies of the documents and we collected it a day or two later.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In the case of my mother's nativity, I headed off to Trichy and was lucky to meet a 80+ senior, the lone brahmin in that agraharam who told me
' Yes, i remember your great-grand-father. His eldest son and myself were classmates. That house was their ancestral house. My family has been here for 250 years. But how long they have been here, we do not know. They were there much before we came down here.
Yes, that house you see near the corner, is the house. For the Lands, you need to go this way towards the temple.
But they left the village in 1939 and moved to Trichy. Very Long ago.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
From a village in Tanjore and moving beyond many borders and beyond the ocean as well, it had indeed been a lengthy trip around the world in the quest of a life of enhanced quality.
That was many many decades ago. It helped me to list out some names of illustrious figures in our line and that helped people connect with " ah ! that gentleman... oh yes, we remember .."
But, all said and done, in today's MIGRATORY EXISTENCE, Finally the question that arises is that of NATIVITY and any EVIDENCE to back it or even just to confirm to our children that " YES, this is ample evidence of the fact that we hailed from this place and we are natives of this place.
I was witness to a senior manager from the USA pose a question if we could help him trace his ancestral house in Bangalore, which they left to the shores of the USA, way back in the 1960s. We could not do much to help him out.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I now started wondering. With so many migrations and the world being a global citizenship event, the question one day to our descendants would be two-pronged.
' ORIGINALLY WHERE ARE WE FROM ? '
' WHAT EVIDENCE TO THAT EFFECT ? '
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
All Brahmins who have migrated to other parts of the world, might want to work towards this and have something handy, scan it, save it and e-mail it to their children and grand-children who might find it useful one day.
IDENTITY is the Most-Cherished asset.
Ancestral Presence in the Native Village/ Town/ City, is linked to this Identity and a crisis there could create an emotional vacuum--- A vacuum that could really linger on for a long time and although not serious enough to over-throw balance, could still give that feeling of deep yearning
" HOW I WISH I KNEW WHERE IN THAT SOIL MY PEOPLE AND OUR LINE, lived, dined and led a family...The BEAUTIFUL CONTINUUM OF GENERATIONS TOGETHER "
There was a particular discussion that went on between myself and a Govt.Official at Mysore.
He hurled a query.. Where are you from ?
I said " Bangalore "
He repeated " No No, where do you hail from ? "
I said " Born and Brought up in Bangalore "
He repeated " No, that is not my query. Originally where are you from ? Your surname says IYER. Where are your ancestors from ? "
I said " I have mentioned that in the form under the Nativity column. A Village in Tanjore Distt. "
He went on to ask " It has been filed. I know that. I just wanted to understand if there is any solid evidence on hand that you hail from that place ? "
I realized that here is a doubting thomas out to kill some time at my expense. I evaded his question and moved away.
But much before him, there have been multiple people ask me on multiple ocassions " ORIGINALLY, WHERE ARE YOU FROM ? ".
While returning to Bangalore, I felt THE FUTURE WOULD DEFINITELY BOMBARD PEOPLE WITH THIS QUESTION AND SEEK EVIDENCE.
My father usually goes twice a year to our native village. Although none of us have any holding there anymore, he stays in a hotel nearby and performs the yearly rituals and yearly poojas to our family deity, this time around, I told him to see if there are any distant relatives around and if any records exist that MENTION HIS FATHER AND ANCESTORS.
So, this time, we were lucky that a 90 year old man was still alive and active and one priest who had purchased his house from our distant relative existed.
The 90 year old man recollected our family and provided information to us about a person to whom my Grandfather and his brother had sold ancestral land and property and also an ancestor of ours who was a panchayat board president many many decades ago.
My father recollected that many years ago, he had travelled as a young teenager, all of 19 years, from mumbai, along with this father and signed as the Witness.
The 90 year old man also told my father that the purchaser of our ancestral property had in turn sold it to another person and he guided us to him.
That Gentleman in his late 70s, was all the more willing to look up our records in which THREE GENERATIONS were mentioned and all the signatures, including that of my father was seen.
When informed that it might come handy to us as EVIDENCE of NATIVITY, he readily obliged with photo-copies of the documents and we collected it a day or two later.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In the case of my mother's nativity, I headed off to Trichy and was lucky to meet a 80+ senior, the lone brahmin in that agraharam who told me
' Yes, i remember your great-grand-father. His eldest son and myself were classmates. That house was their ancestral house. My family has been here for 250 years. But how long they have been here, we do not know. They were there much before we came down here.
Yes, that house you see near the corner, is the house. For the Lands, you need to go this way towards the temple.
But they left the village in 1939 and moved to Trichy. Very Long ago.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
From a village in Tanjore and moving beyond many borders and beyond the ocean as well, it had indeed been a lengthy trip around the world in the quest of a life of enhanced quality.
That was many many decades ago. It helped me to list out some names of illustrious figures in our line and that helped people connect with " ah ! that gentleman... oh yes, we remember .."
But, all said and done, in today's MIGRATORY EXISTENCE, Finally the question that arises is that of NATIVITY and any EVIDENCE to back it or even just to confirm to our children that " YES, this is ample evidence of the fact that we hailed from this place and we are natives of this place.
I was witness to a senior manager from the USA pose a question if we could help him trace his ancestral house in Bangalore, which they left to the shores of the USA, way back in the 1960s. We could not do much to help him out.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I now started wondering. With so many migrations and the world being a global citizenship event, the question one day to our descendants would be two-pronged.
' ORIGINALLY WHERE ARE WE FROM ? '
' WHAT EVIDENCE TO THAT EFFECT ? '
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
All Brahmins who have migrated to other parts of the world, might want to work towards this and have something handy, scan it, save it and e-mail it to their children and grand-children who might find it useful one day.
IDENTITY is the Most-Cherished asset.
Ancestral Presence in the Native Village/ Town/ City, is linked to this Identity and a crisis there could create an emotional vacuum--- A vacuum that could really linger on for a long time and although not serious enough to over-throw balance, could still give that feeling of deep yearning
" HOW I WISH I KNEW WHERE IN THAT SOIL MY PEOPLE AND OUR LINE, lived, dined and led a family...The BEAUTIFUL CONTINUUM OF GENERATIONS TOGETHER "
