{"id":1416,"date":"2016-05-05T02:13:31","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T02:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=1416"},"modified":"2016-05-05T02:13:31","modified_gmt":"2016-05-05T02:13:31","slug":"india-teerth-purohits-ancestral-roots-haridwar-family-tree-hindu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1416","title":{"rendered":"Teerth Purohits: Guardians of India\u2019s Family Trees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I<\/span>have horrible handwriting. I remember filling cursive books, trying to even change the way I held a pencil, but it just wouldn\u2019t improve. I went through school hearing taunts from teachers who couldn\u2019t grade my exams because they believed I had the \u201ckeyboard problem\u201d and told my parents that I probably spent too much time \u201cchatting on the net\u201d. To make matters worse, my younger sister was a natural and had a gorgeous cursive hand. I tried and tried and tried but nothing worked.\n\nAnd then, one day, I saw my father fill out a form. Suddenly, everything made sense.\n\nHis handwriting was worse than mine; disgusting even, when placed next to my mother\u2019s. My sister had inherited her curvy, spacious, and naturally italicised words, whereas I got his stuffy noise. That day I threw out my cursive books, safe in the knowledge that I had no control over something controlled by genetics.\n\nLittle did I know then, that this little childhood grudge would one day result in a quest that ran deeper. My handwriting and the way I curved my \u201cS\u201ds would become the entry point through which I understood my ancestry.\n\nI found the answer in a cosy room in Haridwar, that had taken us a day and a half to find, on the back of a personal loss. My grandmother had passed away and we were in Haridwar for the last rites, the immersion of her ashes in the Ganga. After the ritual dip at Har Ki Paudi, we made a trip to nearby Kusha Ghat, to find our genealogist at one of the gaddis to inform him of my grandma\u2019s passing.\n\nThe ghat is bustling from sunrise to sunset, with people ready to help one understand their lineage. Finding the right genealogist is hard work because it means walking back and forth through the tiny lanes of the holy city, telling people your gotra or your family\u2019s place of birth, as genealogists divide up families based on caste or location. Just like several trades in this country, this too is a family occupation.\n\n<\/p>