All Talk and No Action

Just got off the phone.

Usual Friend. Usual chatter. Just today it was about meri saat pedhiyaan.

Family trees have always been a source of fascination.

Who were the grand-parents of my grand-parents ?

Where did my family originate ?

What did my ancestors do for a living ?

What ticked them...what they ate...how they passed their days... their motivations ...the school of thought they belonged to...

And finally why am I the way I am ?

Do I have someone in the tree I have taken after ?

I learnt about my seven generations yesterday. Well. Not everything. But good amount enough for the time being.

I already knew about four and getting to know more about the saat peedhiyaan had proven to be difficult. But yesterday, during a family reunion, amidst lots of laughter, buffoonery and some real and fake hugs, I learnt about where my ancestors came from and what they did for a living.

Digging out all that there is on Mattas will always be a labour of love. I can't pin it down to a single reason.

I don't even know what I will do with the Family Tree, that is, if it ever gets completely made.

I am sure I wouldn't want to get in touch with all the cousins. Definitely not.

Yet, filling in the blanks would make me happy.

Cut to the "Phone-a-Friend". All I got from my friend was some laughs, lots of his usual blah and blah and general disinterest in talking about his Roots.

Yet another showed a mild disinterest in the topic and waved it off over chat.

A colleague dared to laugh when I bubbled with excitement over this whole business.

Heck even my cousins couldn't stop laughing over my wide eyed expression as I drank all the information floating around yesterday.

Really, are people in general not interested in their History, Culture and let me be a little mean here, their roots ?

Or Do I really get excited about stupid things ?