Chanced upon this post in my Multiply account and didn't want to lose it. Hehehe... So here goes, the copied version.
Ok as my title goes, some of you have already known that in my IC, my race is specified as Pakistani.
But as I grew up and got wiser, hehehe, I found out from the dad that actually our lineage came from Bangladesh. Both my paternal and maternal grand-dads were Banglas. Mula2 macam tak percaya gitu… Yelah, sapa nak mengaku diri ni Bangla mwahahaha…!!! But I was interested to know more.
So the story goes. India and Pakistan were one big country. They separated and Pakistan became an independent country in 1947. And Pakistan consisted of two geographically separate regions, West Pakistan – where Urdu is their main language and East Pakistan – where Bengali was their main language. Both my grand-dads were from East Pakistan and they spoke Bengali, the same language spoken by our foreign Bangla workers.
West Pakistan and East Pakistan separated in 1971. West Pakistan became Pakistan and East Pakistan became Bangladesh. So when I was born, the country my grand-dads came from was already called Bangladesh. But true, during those times, people don’t hear about Bangladesh much. Since the ICs of my mum and dad still bear the race Pakistani, me and my sisters had to follow suit.
I never met my grand-dads, it would have been a great thing if they are alive now. I would have gotten a lot of stories from them. I love history by the way. But from what little stories I got from both my grand-mums, its confirmed that the grand-dads came from Bangladesh and they spoke Bengali. In fact, my paternal grand-ma – who is a Singaporean Malay-Chinese mixed – even lived in Bangladesh for a few years. And my dad was born there.
Sidenote: Bengali is not Sikh by the way. We always have this misconception that Bengali are Sikhs. Nope, Bengali are Bengalis and they speak Bengali and Sikhs are Sikhs and they speak Punjabi.
Now knowing I have roots in Bangladesh, how wonderful would it have been if both my grand-dads were alive. That means I have relatives in Bangladesh. My grand-dads sure had siblings. And the siblings sure had children. And the children sure had their own children. Means I might have uncles and aunties, cuzzins, nieces and nephews or who knows, even grandchildren hehehe…!! My mum told me before that she was nearly married off to one of her second-cuzzins in Bangladesh! Hehehe...!!!
Its such a pity, I have nowhere to start from. If there is a little hope of me finding relatives in Bangladesh, I would have done it. Maybe go through the net (although Im quite sure its very hard, coz Bangladesh is still a developing country). Or even when I get in touch with a relative there, who knows, I might just go over and meet them hehehe…!!!
But language will be a problem. I speak Hindi coz like I said, I grew up thinking Im Pakistani. So I was more interested in learning and speaking Hindi coz Urdu and Hindi are similar in a lot of ways.. And my maternal grand-ma race is specified as Hindi in her IC. Kalao lah aku tahu Im Bangladeshi right from young, I might have just learnt Bengali hehehe…!!
So, there’s very little chance that I might get in touch with relatives over there. How wonderful would it be if a miracle happened and just by the touch of destiny (and Allah’s will), I might just fulfil this dream of mine – of meeting relatives in Bangladesh.
*still hoping*
And yes, you all can call me a Bangla coz I am one mwahahahahaha…!!!
Ok as my title goes, some of you have already known that in my IC, my race is specified as Pakistani.
But as I grew up and got wiser, hehehe, I found out from the dad that actually our lineage came from Bangladesh. Both my paternal and maternal grand-dads were Banglas. Mula2 macam tak percaya gitu… Yelah, sapa nak mengaku diri ni Bangla mwahahaha…!!! But I was interested to know more.
So the story goes. India and Pakistan were one big country. They separated and Pakistan became an independent country in 1947. And Pakistan consisted of two geographically separate regions, West Pakistan – where Urdu is their main language and East Pakistan – where Bengali was their main language. Both my grand-dads were from East Pakistan and they spoke Bengali, the same language spoken by our foreign Bangla workers.
West Pakistan and East Pakistan separated in 1971. West Pakistan became Pakistan and East Pakistan became Bangladesh. So when I was born, the country my grand-dads came from was already called Bangladesh. But true, during those times, people don’t hear about Bangladesh much. Since the ICs of my mum and dad still bear the race Pakistani, me and my sisters had to follow suit.
I never met my grand-dads, it would have been a great thing if they are alive now. I would have gotten a lot of stories from them. I love history by the way. But from what little stories I got from both my grand-mums, its confirmed that the grand-dads came from Bangladesh and they spoke Bengali. In fact, my paternal grand-ma – who is a Singaporean Malay-Chinese mixed – even lived in Bangladesh for a few years. And my dad was born there.
Sidenote: Bengali is not Sikh by the way. We always have this misconception that Bengali are Sikhs. Nope, Bengali are Bengalis and they speak Bengali and Sikhs are Sikhs and they speak Punjabi.
Now knowing I have roots in Bangladesh, how wonderful would it have been if both my grand-dads were alive. That means I have relatives in Bangladesh. My grand-dads sure had siblings. And the siblings sure had children. And the children sure had their own children. Means I might have uncles and aunties, cuzzins, nieces and nephews or who knows, even grandchildren hehehe…!! My mum told me before that she was nearly married off to one of her second-cuzzins in Bangladesh! Hehehe...!!!
Its such a pity, I have nowhere to start from. If there is a little hope of me finding relatives in Bangladesh, I would have done it. Maybe go through the net (although Im quite sure its very hard, coz Bangladesh is still a developing country). Or even when I get in touch with a relative there, who knows, I might just go over and meet them hehehe…!!!
But language will be a problem. I speak Hindi coz like I said, I grew up thinking Im Pakistani. So I was more interested in learning and speaking Hindi coz Urdu and Hindi are similar in a lot of ways.. And my maternal grand-ma race is specified as Hindi in her IC. Kalao lah aku tahu Im Bangladeshi right from young, I might have just learnt Bengali hehehe…!!
So, there’s very little chance that I might get in touch with relatives over there. How wonderful would it be if a miracle happened and just by the touch of destiny (and Allah’s will), I might just fulfil this dream of mine – of meeting relatives in Bangladesh.
*still hoping*
And yes, you all can call me a Bangla coz I am one mwahahahahaha…!!!
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