It is indeed a blessing , when you meet strangers in a far off land and the moment you mention your native place they reel off the actions of your ancestors in manner that would want you to know more about them(your own ancestors) and their lives.
Well, if you are wondering, what i am talking about then, this is reportage of a chance meeting in a roadside resturant with one Sheik Meeya Khan - aged about 50 and born and educated in Pattamadai.
A meeting Jeddah Street in Al-Jubail, when a hitherto unknown person across the table in a resturant picks up your bill for the mere fact that he studied in a school with which your great grand fathers' name is associated - Well, if this is not the grace of elders, what else is?
Well, now that Janani should be transforming into an Annapoorni in our minds , what better than quoting Sir Walter Scott -
"Breathes there the man with soul so dead,
Who to himself hath never said,
This is my own, my native land"!
(Janani Janmabhumishcha Svargadapi Gariyasi .. in some cases Copyright must bestow a right to copy - the world of money is cruel indeed!)
My kudos to Meeya Khan who having been here for the last 20 years remembers with fondness the place where he grew up. The world is a better place for the likes of him.
I am a "arumukhamangalamist", born in Delhi, spent over 60 years of my life here, and yet (a) I/providence, have decided that I have no roots here, (b) I have no connection to my native place except the initial "A" in my name,(c)my kula devatha is in another place, of which I have only now started to learn.
ReplyDeleteWhich is my janma bhoomi? The answer is more appropriately India. If I see a arumukhamangalamite in another country, there will be this spark as you experienced with this pattamadai read fellow, but it will be less than when I see a fellow from Dwarka in delhi, where I have spent less than a decade, and have no permanent interest.
But nothing can compare wth this fellow's feelngs, which makes me feel that Pattamadai must have offered him something unique and great.
Surely we have all perhaps missed something.
Which brings me to my earlier query, in these days of shrinking boundaries, starting from my own fathers days of his emigration to Delhi in early 30's of last century, to todays Dhruv, apporvas, who are well absorbed into their present environs, what contributes "janma bhoomi" is difficult to assess. I for one feel, I am a stateless refugee; I was born in Delhi, a tamilian, with no roots in both these places, a small nest in Mumbai, where I cannot hope to live in the near future, and when it comes to the eternal quest, I am a "trishangu" not knowing where I am.
I simultaneously envy the miya khans, who can enjoy both pattamadai and SA, and also pity them (assuming that they are their just for a living), as his janma bhoomi question is similar to mine, in a way.
Lovely experience though Naresh.
Love
Vichu
Quite an amazing experience it must have been for you to meet Meeya Khan! Kahan Pattamadai aur kahan Al-Jubail...makes me think if there is some force that connects people in strange ways.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, one of my Sulzer Singapore ex-colleagues, Yogesh Kulkarni, has recently joined Saudi-Kayan and also probably based in Al-Jubail. Since your organizations are related, you may cross each other sometime. He belongs to Kolhapur and will be good company in an alien land. I mentioned to him as well that you are re-locating somewhere there before you actually went over. I will try to connect you both through email.
After living most of my life in Maharashtra, I am tempted to coin the term "Pattamadaikars" like Nagpurkars, Punekars and even Pashankars even as Vichu chitappa prefers the Delhi-ite kind of ending as Arumukhamangalam-ite.
To all Pattamadaikars - Jai Ho! from this humble Arumugamangalamkar!