The Bihar lesson-By Deepa BHOOKHUN

Deepa BHOOKHUN writes in http://www.lexpress.mu/ about the sense of root tracing and the feeling thereof.

I had always thought that all this fuss about the importance of people tracing their roots was sheer nonsense. What does it matter where one’s forebears came from? Isn’t it enough that one knows who and what one is, who one’s parents are and what are the values that one holds dear? It must be.

Which is why every time I heard someone lamenting over the fact that the Creoles had an identity problem because their ancestors had been uprooted, I had to keep my temper in check. Utter sentimental crap, I thought. Which is why every time I heard an Mauritian of Indian origin going on endlessly about some supposed emotional link with India, I bit my lip so as not to say something that would make them hate me forever.

And then I went to Bihar.

I cannot express the feeling that overcame me on that trip and this in itself speaks volume. I am quite an eloquent girl on a good day, I can assure you.

Oh it was nothing dramatic but how do I describe it without sounding soppy?

Suffice it to say that the affection I felt for people I met there took me quite by surprise. Suffice it to say that often, I felt that my eyes were welling up for no reason.

I didn’t go visit the village where my father’s forefather came from; it’s not in Bihar anymore, it is in a neighboring state called Jharkhand that used to be part of Bihar. I didn’t have any need to go to my ancestral village of Hazaree Baug to try and find long lost cousins and uncles with whom I would have nothing in common.

No, it simply was not necessary.

Visiting Bihar was enough. Getting a feel of the land, the customs, and the people was enough. It is not going to change my life and it is not going to change the way I relate to people. It felt simply good to know that at least half of me “belonged” somewhere, that I had “roots” somewhere.

Which begs the questions: Could it be that people actually need to feel that they “belong”? How important is it? And what happens if one doesn’t know where one comes from? How does this affect a person if at all?

Like I said, the visit to Bihar was not life changing but it sure made me feel good.

And it has taught me a valuable lesson.

I have always known that part of my legacy came from Bihar and the other part from Andhra Pradesh. What about people who have never known where their forebears came from? Could it be that this sense of not having an identity, of not having “roots”, of not “belonging” is an impediment to many things, among which personal fulfillment?

Could this be the reason why so many Creoles in this country are still struggling to come to terms with themselves and move on?

Could Professor Robert Shell be right, after all?