Northeastern Musings

Hello Folks?
How is life

Human Race is ever evolving. The Jewish, Biblical and Quranic traditions tells mankind's story in the birth of Adam, the first man( a Prophet in Islam) which imortalised in John Milton's "Paradise Lost."

God's best creations (humans) are capable of diving into the farthest and deepest oceans, take out hidden treasures, remnants of lost heritage shipwrecks ( the unsinkable Titanic in contemporary times)

The world itself is a melting pot, right from the era which the Political theorists have termed as the age of " Might is Right. "

Thanks to Globalisation, people venture to the farthest of lands across the seven seas in the prospect of better livelihood.

There have been Chroniclers, kind of travelling reporters ( in contemporary sense either a travel writer, a researcher or a freelancer) who have from time immemorial have had the chance of measuring human growth and progress. Hein Tsang, Al- Beruni, the Moroccan traveller, Ibn-Batuta are some to name a few.

Dynasties are a mixture of intermarriages with people if different Racial, Topographical and Geographical origins. The Mughals in India were the direct descendants of Mongol Chief and warrior, Chenghiz Khan with inter marriages of Turks, Iranians etc.

Maybe this is the reason Paintings of Emperor Babur, his Grandson Akbar and others are shown to have Mongoloid features, especially the " eyes."

The Different dynasties maintain records of the successive generations like the

" Family Trees." They are called " Shejara " in Persian.

Ancestors give values, traditions, heritage and most importantly, distinct identities.

My story so far is that of the Paternal side, my roots are from Arabia ( the birthplace of Prophet Muhammad)and from my maternal side, it belongs to Tajikistan( a former territory of the USSR) in the Central Asia. My Mother is the second generation born in India .

My Mother's Roots trace back to Dushanbe at Tajikistan. Here is our ancestral saint's Shrine Hazrat Yaqoob-e-Charqi ( Yaqoob in English would be Jacob). Co incidentally my whole maternal side comprises of a saint one generation or the
other. We also have another shrine or " Mazaar " as it is called in Hindi or Urdu at the border of Bangladesh called Rongpur. Recently during a visit to Kanpur of Uttar Pradesh in India, my mother found out another branch of her family who are the descendants of the shrine of Hazrat Dada Mia, who has a road named after him at Kanpur.

My cousin sister from that branch, Fatima Apa( who has completed her biotechnology
course from jamia Millia Islamiya University, New Delhi) is the only cousin sister from the maternal side that i have met. She shares her first name with my mother. My Mother's being Fatima Gulbadan.

Historically Emperor Babur's daughter was called Gulbadan( It is said she was the brain behind Baburnama )

My Great Grandfather Ghulam Sarwar Khan( My Mother's grandfather) was the Commander-in-Chief of the royal Afghan Army at the kingly ages, at the same time his father, Khan Mohammad Khan held the same rank before him.

There was a military coup In Afghanistan when the British forces had plans of merging Afghanistan with India which was being colonised one kingdom after the other.

My Great Grandfather Ghualam Sarwar Khan is a Tajikh and they were called by the Afghan people to be part of the nobility and help assisting to rule the nation.

This coup was in reality the usurping of the throne of the king under whom my great grandfather worked, this new king had promised him freedom and service under him and had sent a messenger equipped with the Holy Quran and the order written on it.

Here, the twist of fate starts for someone warned my great grandfather that the king cannot be trusted and this is a false promise and in reality he would be imprisoned and killed.

Just before these turn of events he had told his brothers and other relatives back home that he would like to go over a place called " Shubri " as he was a military man he had to be in tune with the topography of the neighbouring areas.

Now,this Shubri was in fact the " Dhubri " district of Assam in the North Eastern part of India. He miss pelt it.

Now coming in terms of language, the word " Shubri " has a different connotation in " Pashtu " the national language of Afghanistan. It means a bog, a swamp. The brothers naturally remarked that he would drown if he happens to venture in such an area.