THE road to Parsa Surat village in Basti in Uttar Pradesh is motorable only in patches. But that’s never been too much of a problem considering cars seldom come this way. And then when they do, villagers stop to stare at them. Today when a cavalcade of four vehicles stops outside Shaukat Ali’s hut, it’s not just a few people, but the whole village that turns up to welcome the guests.
The moment merits the attention. It’s a homecoming at the end of journey that began a century earlier and spans three continents. It began at Parsa in Basti in 1888, then on to Guyana, a British colony in South America, to move forward and merge in the melting pot of New York. Today it has come full circle to where it started from: Parsa Surat, Basti.
Businessman Mohamed Amzad, 74, his 72-year-old wife Ashiran, their children and grandchildren have come from Manhattan to meet their relatives in the village their ancestors left in the 19th century to work as indentured labour in the then British colony of Guyana.
The ‘‘Yanks’’ are taken straight to where Shaukat’s father Mohammed Siddiq usually rests.
Behind the frames of her spectacles, Ashiran’s eyes are wet. Mohammed Siddiq is clearly pleased to receive his cousin’s family even though he had never heard of them before this in his 80 years.
Ashiran’s daughters Bebe Khan and Saforah Khan and their families follow next. Saforah’s 21-year-old daughter Shazeda is busy recording the reunion on her Handycam.
After all it’s a moment she’s waited and worked for this past year.

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