Unbelivable but true...

Yeah, thats the perfect title for this amazing thing which happened with me some-time back.

Just to give you some background, I've been born and brought-up in Bombay and I've lived there all my life. My grandfather is originally from the south of India, Kanyakumari actually, and he emigrated to Bombay after his marriage sometime in the 1940s. All of his sons have been born and brought up in Bombay.

My grandfather's mother - my great grandmother - used to live in our house in a very small village called Puliyoorkurichi, in Thuckalay district just about 15 Kms from the town of Nagercoil, when my grandfather came to Bombay. Soon after, he got her to Bombay as well and the ancestral house was just lying vacant. I've been fortunate enough to have seen and interacted with my great grandmother. I can still remember the day when we took her to Juhu beach. At the ripe old age of 80 she walked with us on the beach, clinging to my dad for his support. :-) She died in 1986 when she was 87.

Soon after she died, our family decided to sell off the ancestral house since it was lying vacant for years and that was the first and last time that I had visited our ancestral house. I remember sleeping in the house on the upper floor and I still recall a peculiar smell which used to emanate from the room since, it used to occupied by bats.

Now, when I'm in the US a very strange incident occurred to me which has left me yearning to go to "my roots". I'm executing a project for one of our clients here and I happened to be introduced to one manager here. He was also from India and we had just started conversing. The conversation went something like this...

Manager: Hello, nice to meet you.

I: Hello sir, thank you.

Manager: So, where in India are you from?

I: I'm from Bombay.

Manager: So were you born and brought up there?

I: Yes, I've been born and brought up in Bombay. But our family is originally from Tamil Nadu.

Manager: Yes, I could make that out from your name, its typical tamilian. So where in Tamil Nadu is your family from?

I: (a bit hesitatingly) You wouldnt probably know the place, its rather small. The nearest town is Kanyakumari.

Manager: Oooh really, I am also originally from near Kanyakumari. Which district are you from?

I: The district is Thukkalay (sometimes also written as Thakkalai).

Manager: Oh wow, my native place is also in Thukkalay district. Which village there??

I: (feeling very awkward to say the name of my village) mm...er....

Manager: I am from Puliyoorkurichi.

I: Oh my god! This is unbelivable. My native village is Puliyoorkurichi too. Although we do not own anything there. We sold off our house quite sometime back.

Manager: Actually, I haven't been there in a long time too. So have you been to the lake and to Kumara-Kovil and Padmanabhapuram palace.

I: Yes I know the Padmanabhapuram palace. My great grandfather his name was Ramaswamy Ramalingam, he used to work for the Travancore Maharaja. He was some sort of an accountant. And I also know Kumara-kovil. That was where I had my first hair-cut as a child.

Manager: This is very very interesting. Its a very small world.

I: Yes its unbelivable, absolutely unreal.

Manager: Speaking of haircuts I think you definitely need one now.
(Laughter all around)

It is so unbelievable! Two people whose ancestral village is the same and who haven't been to their villages in many many years, meeting each other in a completely different country and realizing by accident that their ancestors hail from the same village, the whole experience is surreal! Absolutely mind-blowing.

I was in a state of disbelief for the remainder of the day and couldn't stop thinking about it at all. The next day at the first possible opportunity, I spoke to my dad and told him about this and asked him if he knew any landmarks near our house. And he said our house was next to Rajamani's house and the 5th house from the main street. He also said that great grandfather was a Survey officer at the Travancore Maharaja's court.

After listening to him speak I whispered to him slowly - all this has prompted me to think of buying back our old ancestral house and the more I think about it, the more I feel I should do it.

I hope I can, someday.