I was out of touch with writing for more than a month now for quite a few reasons, one being my latest fascination for candle making. However, something happened this morning which is so overwhelming (in a good way) that I thought I should write about it. The difficult part is to collect my thoughts. There are so many parts of what I am going to write and the timing of it also opened up another chain of thoughts....
Now this is the time for Durga Pujo, the greatest socio-religious festival of Bengal. Besides the religious part of celebrating Durga's victory of the demon Mahisashura, there is the social part of people, mainly married women to come back to their homes. This is the time of welcoming people back, to accept people without asking questions, to make your family feel loved. Today marks the beginning of this festival and it is this morning that I found a big piece of information about my roots.
I am famous for being the one to rake up family history. I maintain a seven generation family tree and I traveled to the other end of Calcutta to get information about my family and its distant branches. I am the one who loves to imagine about our original house in Jessore, Bangladesh. The house built in 1750s by my ancestor Indranarayan Ghosh. My great grandfather lived in that house in his childhood but after him nobody in my family cared to find the lost roots. I have a distant uncle (actually would be my something cousin somewhat removed) who lived in that house till 1950s and he told me about how it looked, how the river flowed by it and details of how they used to have a family Durga Pujo there. It stirred my imagination and I often wondered how come unlike the stories of Satyajit Ray, I have never uncovered any old letters long forgotten in old trunks. I tried my hand at writing a "historical story" following the footsteps of Saradindu (it is very difficult to write a proper story, especially if you yourself have a high bar of story quality). I loved to imagine that once I used to live in that old house, but I had no idea of how to ever find out any details about it.
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Fast forward to 2014. I dusted off my DSLR and thought I should experiment with photography. I started uploading my photographs under the YourShot section of National Geographic and browsing other people's photographs. One day I run into a guy's profile who had posted a picture of my most favorite fish, Ilish. I found out that the photographer, Fazle lives in Bangladesh and we started talking about villages there, where our common roots are, etc. We are also connected through Facebook now. Last week, we were talking randomly when I told him that I am originally from Jessore but I have no clue how to find out about the house. He asked me if I have the address, then he can find out. Of course I have no idea of the address of an old house in a village, that too in a different country. But, I have access to technology...
This next piece is going to be an eulogy of technology in 2015. I got Google maps to help me out. I know that the region is called Bidyanandakati and the village Mangalkote. Google pointed me to the right place. I could also see the river next to it. I gave the link to Fazle and asked him if this place is next to a very famous place called Sagardari. He confirmed that yes, it is. As Fazle works at a news channel, he has reporter friends all over Bangladesh and he decided to ask the person located in Jessore, Wazed for help. "Do you have any other information about the house?" he asked me. I had no other info, but I racked my brain and told him, "that house used to have an elaborate entryway with lions on the gate. Maybe that is no more now, but ask them if they know of a mansion belonging to the family of Ghosh." The next morning, he sent me a message that they didn't even have to ask around, his friend could immediately understand what the "mansion belonging to the Ghosh family" is. I felt so proud of my lineage :)
Thanks to the Internet, to my friend and his colleague for going out of their way to find information about the family history of someone they hardly know, to my capacity of not letting go of something that I really want to find out about and to the fact that I like talking to people, this morning the first picture of my original family home reached my Facebook inbox. Wazed, being a reporter has not forgotten to ask the people living there about the family and has video recorded those :)
Spanning three countries and more than 250 years, technology has the capacity to connect human beings and empower them to a huge degree. I feel that the full circle is complete now. The story that had once started on the banks of the Bhadra river found its completion on the shores of Lake Washington. I feel that this year for Durga Pujo I may not be able to go home to Calcutta, but I have been welcomed to my original home by my ancestors.
PS: Photo credit - Wazed Khan and credit for making the connection - Fazle Rezowan Karim
Now this is the time for Durga Pujo, the greatest socio-religious festival of Bengal. Besides the religious part of celebrating Durga's victory of the demon Mahisashura, there is the social part of people, mainly married women to come back to their homes. This is the time of welcoming people back, to accept people without asking questions, to make your family feel loved. Today marks the beginning of this festival and it is this morning that I found a big piece of information about my roots.
I am famous for being the one to rake up family history. I maintain a seven generation family tree and I traveled to the other end of Calcutta to get information about my family and its distant branches. I am the one who loves to imagine about our original house in Jessore, Bangladesh. The house built in 1750s by my ancestor Indranarayan Ghosh. My great grandfather lived in that house in his childhood but after him nobody in my family cared to find the lost roots. I have a distant uncle (actually would be my something cousin somewhat removed) who lived in that house till 1950s and he told me about how it looked, how the river flowed by it and details of how they used to have a family Durga Pujo there. It stirred my imagination and I often wondered how come unlike the stories of Satyajit Ray, I have never uncovered any old letters long forgotten in old trunks. I tried my hand at writing a "historical story" following the footsteps of Saradindu (it is very difficult to write a proper story, especially if you yourself have a high bar of story quality). I loved to imagine that once I used to live in that old house, but I had no idea of how to ever find out any details about it.
______________________________
Fast forward to 2014. I dusted off my DSLR and thought I should experiment with photography. I started uploading my photographs under the YourShot section of National Geographic and browsing other people's photographs. One day I run into a guy's profile who had posted a picture of my most favorite fish, Ilish. I found out that the photographer, Fazle lives in Bangladesh and we started talking about villages there, where our common roots are, etc. We are also connected through Facebook now. Last week, we were talking randomly when I told him that I am originally from Jessore but I have no clue how to find out about the house. He asked me if I have the address, then he can find out. Of course I have no idea of the address of an old house in a village, that too in a different country. But, I have access to technology...
This next piece is going to be an eulogy of technology in 2015. I got Google maps to help me out. I know that the region is called Bidyanandakati and the village Mangalkote. Google pointed me to the right place. I could also see the river next to it. I gave the link to Fazle and asked him if this place is next to a very famous place called Sagardari. He confirmed that yes, it is. As Fazle works at a news channel, he has reporter friends all over Bangladesh and he decided to ask the person located in Jessore, Wazed for help. "Do you have any other information about the house?" he asked me. I had no other info, but I racked my brain and told him, "that house used to have an elaborate entryway with lions on the gate. Maybe that is no more now, but ask them if they know of a mansion belonging to the family of Ghosh." The next morning, he sent me a message that they didn't even have to ask around, his friend could immediately understand what the "mansion belonging to the Ghosh family" is. I felt so proud of my lineage :)
Thanks to the Internet, to my friend and his colleague for going out of their way to find information about the family history of someone they hardly know, to my capacity of not letting go of something that I really want to find out about and to the fact that I like talking to people, this morning the first picture of my original family home reached my Facebook inbox. Wazed, being a reporter has not forgotten to ask the people living there about the family and has video recorded those :)
PS: Photo credit - Wazed Khan and credit for making the connection - Fazle Rezowan Karim
