Roundtable
Journeys
The Roundtable Open Forum # 30 - May 26 - June 1
EDITOR
The Rules of the forum are posted here on the right, and need to be followed strictly by all participants.
The following is this week's (May 26 - June 1) topic for discussion, which should focus on the questions posed therein:
JOURNEYS
1 For those of us who live in the diaspora, each story of how either we ourselves or our predecessors (parents, grand-parents, ancestors, elders) got where we now call home, is the stuff of an epic saga.
2 Most of our families have gone through multiple migrations. For example, some of us can easily trace the ‘exodus' from the implosion of partitioned Punjab to the new India, from there to East Africa, then to England, and thereon to Canada or U.S.A.
3 Others followed a path from pre-partition Punjab to Malaysia or Singapore, and then on to Australia and New Zealand. Some had even taken direct routes and sprang roots where they landed.
4 There are large pockets of communities in Thailand, Burma and Fiji, South Africa, Italy and Scotland ... to name but a few.
5 The paths, the number of stages, the ‘stops' along the way, and the destinations - the permutations and combinations are many. And so are the reasons for each move.
POINTS TO PONDER
- So, tell us and share the stories of how you arrived at your ‘new' homeland.
- Who made the initial journey? And the migrations that followed?
- What was the reason behind each ‘uprooting' and re-settlement?
- How were the destinations chosen?
- And now, in a shrunken world, how are your families fitting into the format of being global citizens? Where are your brothers and sisters? Where are your children?
Conversation about this article
1: Jasbir Singh (Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.), May 27, 2010, 1:50 PM.
My parents had to flee their ancestral lands when the Partition of Punjab took place, and move to newly formulated India. They tried their luck for a bit in Delhi and Calcutta, and then made their way to Uganda to join relatives there. When Idi Amin threw out all the non-blacks on a whim one year, they became migrants once again ... this time to the U.K. Where I grew up. Years later, my children crossed the big pond to the United States to study, and my wife and I ultimately followed them when they decided to settle there. We are all now happily ensconced in the LA area, living within short distances of each other. We are also grateful for all that life has sent our way, including adventures, challenges and an endless array of gifts. I see that our grandchildren are developing deep roots in the American soil, even though we are very conscious of the fact that life in America comes with the privilege and pleasure of free and easy mobility. With all that the last 60 years have brought for us, we are ready for all the blessings the future holds for us too.
2: Karandeep Singh (Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.), May 28, 2010, 10:52 AM.
The journey of my family - from the Rawalpindi area in pre-partition Punjab to the U.S. - has truly been an epic one. One of my ancestors was lured to Burma during the pre-War years by friends and relatives who had settled there. Before long, he had brought over much of his family - brothers and sisters - to Rangoon. They flourished there until a hostile regime took over the country in the 1960s and many 'non-Burmese" were forced to flee. My father, born in Burma, headed to Delhi. He found India to be a backwater not conducive to entrepreneurship, and therefore quickly found his way, first to Canada, and then to the U.S. My siblings and I were all born in the U.S. My mother, also of Sikh-Burmese heritage, was born and brought up in England. She was introduced to my father by Sikh-Burmese friends ... she married him and moved with him first to New Jersey, and then to Chicago. While I have settled here with my wife and children, my siblings are somewhat scattered in different parts of the U.S. There's been no looking back ... we are as happy as we can be! Oddly, we still have a number of relatives who continue to live in rural Burma (in the North) and are quite content there, despite the dictatorship. They like the quality of life there and nothing can convince them to leave. All who were born and brought up in Burma, I find, miss it immensely!
3: Sanmeet Kaur (Brampton, Ontario, Canada), June 07, 2010, 10:40 AM.
It's unfortunate that apart from Jasbir Singh ji and Karandeep Singh ji, no one else has shared their story. These stories are what make us the Diaspora. My family too has spanned the globe. My Dada ji went on to Iran from Bhaun Chakwal, Pakistan, where my father was born. Finally, part of the family settled in Bombay in the 1950s where I was later born and raised. My Nana ji left Rawalpindi first in search of better prospects to work in Assam. Later, after the partition, he moved to Ranchi, Bihar, and finally settled in Toronto in the early 1970s. My husband is fourth-generation Singaporean who has spent the better part of his life in Ontario. This is where we now live, our home and birthplace of our daughter. I suppose the Roundtable Forum is too small a platform for our histories. Still, please share them. Through these accounts, we keep alive our spirit through different cultures and generations.