Family roots, search for identity
It was a reunion with an old friend in a foreign land that brought back memories of the late 1970s. Perhaps it was the weather. Sometimes, when winter turns icy and frosty, it recalled the old days, back when the cold seemed far harsher. Families would gather in the main bedroom and share a blanket over a heated floor while sharing old tales. In the houses back then, there was a wall closet with a partition-like door that opened to reveal blankets and valuables. The valuables would include family documents like the family tree, and we would talk about how high or low my family was along the family tree, and whether women would also be registered on it. What reminded me of those days was meeting the friend, Mohamed Nasim, who lives in Singapore and who I have not met in 35 years. When we caught up in December, he presented me with a book he wrote in 2022 about his roots as a Malayalee and Malabari Muslim in Singapore. His father and mother arrived in the city-state from Kerala, India. His community was Malayalee, but they were largely identified as "Indian Muslims" in Singapore, a nati
