16 January 2014

Mata Din's marriage record

After having been 'backordered' for months, I finally got the Indian marriage records for 1952. It took going through the entire roll of microfilm to get to the one I wanted. I didn't know the exact date of marriage, so I had to look at every record. Most were in English, but some were in Urdu, some in Hindi, and a few in what I think was Tamil. But, finally, the 7th record from the end of the roll, I found the one I was looking for.
This is the marriage record of Mata Din and Suruj Pati. They were married on the 1st of November 1952 in Nasinu, Suva, Fiji.
One interesting thing I noticed about this certificate was that splotch at the bottom. Apparently Suruj didn't know how to write, so she gave her thumb print instead of a signature. Probably pretty typical for a poor daughter of a sugar cane farmer.
 

04 January 2014

Know India

India has a program called Know India Programme, that invites youth diaspora to come to India and learn about it. It is a 3 weeks program that teaches the kids (mostly college students) about Indian culture, economics, politics, science and technology and other industries. It's a great program for people of Indian origin to connect with their roots as well as other diaspora from all over the world.

This year Fiji is sending 19 youths. They will spend time visiting major historical and tourist sites, as well as meeting with political and business leaders.

http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=255894
http://thejetnewspaper.com/2014/01/02/27th-know-india-programme-participation-from-fiji/