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Published: November 10th 2008
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A couple of years ago I discovered that my family has some strong connections with India. In fact I’d been given a faint hint some years earlier that India may be the reason for my somewhat dark and ‘eastern’ appearance. Through some newly discovered relatives from my grandfather’s side our family began to piece together some blanks and for the first time take an active interest in our Indian heritage. It turns out that my great great Grandfather was the world champion of billiards toward the end of the nineteenth century, a man by the name of John Roberts Jnr (1847-1919). His skill with the cue took him all around the globe and inevitably to India where he showcased his skills to the Maharaja. The sport’s success in India led the family to develop a billiard table manufacturing business that became so popular it’s tables were distributed all over India and the world. To our pleasure we discovered that the factory was bought by an Indian family following partition and is still thriving in the city of Chennai. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to visit a branch in my family tree as cool and strange as this.
Not only has
The Extended Syed Family
The elderly man next to me is the son of the original buyer of the business. Who purchased it in the late 1940's from my Great Grandfather. the family stayed true to the nature of the business but they absolutely revere and worship the legend of John Roberts. I had no idea what to expect when I arrived at Chennai airport having organised to spend the afternoon with the family. I walked out to a swarm of people, the central figure with a placard with my name on. There were sons and father’s and nephews and brothers in law, two carloads in total, all there to meet the revered great great grandson of the Champ! I was draped with a garland of flowers, presented with a shawl and made to ‘smile for the camera’. My head was spinning in the car with questions I had no answers to and talk of people I didn’t know. We first met with ‘Uncle’ who was the son of the original buyer of the business. In their humble home there was food, more food and garlands and shawls and more photos and more food. The rest of the afternoon consisted of a whirlwind tour of Chennai. In the city office I saw for the first time the humbling photos of my ancestors and the legacy there in black and white before
My Great Great Grandfather
John Roberts Jnr 1847-1919. World Billiards Champion. me. Syeed Ameen, the grandson of the original business buyer and my excited guide presented me with an entire folder on the ‘family’ of J.W. Roberts and I was captivated to see that this stranger knew much more about my distant family than me! He had records of every correspondence he’d made with members, a family tree and photos of others’ visits. Nothing quite beat the photographs on the walls, staring face to face with bruised and greying strangers, my ancestors. High above the bookshelf was a particularly luring shot; a young lady dressed in a floral hat, my great great grandmother, looking discreetly Indian. She was far from wearing a sari but it was a clue nonetheless.
I was told that there were many people hoping that I could make it to the annual ‘J.W. Roberts & Co. Snooker Championship’ whilst in Chennai and I gulped the opportunity like a mouthful of chai. To my surprise it was an exclusive affair with representatives from all over India competing for the top prize. Players from past and present were eager to shake hands with the GG grandson of the Great and there was no shortage of questions asked as
to whether snooker ‘was in my blood’. Even the Chennai Post newspaper was there to capture the story and I was once again garlanded, shawled, photographed and even asked to give a speech to the gathering crowd.
That night on the 14hr train ride to Trivandrum you couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Where else in the world could you meet a bunch of strangers so intent on making you happy for no real personal gain? People in the West seem so intent on providing trivial things to achieve happiness, spend five minutes of your time talking to someone in India and I guarantee the smiles will stretch further than that of the kid in Sydney who just unwrapped his new iphone. Since completing my travels the hardest thing I’ve had to adapt to is senseless spending and the consumption of unnecessary things. Spending time in a country where the vast majority of people have nothing yet ooze such life spirit and utter happiness is a humbling thing. What will happen when the entire global population becomes ‘developed’, where will we find happiness then?
As I flew to Sri Lanka my three months in India melted into
In the press
The article photo from the Chennai Mail. my thoughts and I began to wonder how on earth we coped with the incessant challenges of the place. People have asked me to describe the experience of India and the best I can come up with is this simple fact: when you travel in India you can be assured that every single day is an adventure. Their will always be something unexpected that you will stumble upon or most likely stumble upon you. It’s this that makes it such a drug-like destination; you hate it when it’s not there but when it’s gone you instantly crave it.
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