I had posted my blog yesterday on the Indian Postal system and this post will give a completely different perceptive to communications and how things have changed over the years.
Last Sunday, my father suddenly decided to try and establish contact with someone from his ancestral village. My grandfather and his siblings had left that village and my father and his siblings were all born elsewhere. There was however some tenuous connections with cousins etc which also had got broken over the many decades that the family spread out all over India.
First, I sent an email to our family members through a yahoo-group mail system asking for any information that any of the older members of the family may have and am still waiting for some response.
Next, I went to the internet and found that google has already got a map for the village and from there I navigated my way to various options and located one website that gave me a contact name and email address. The website belongs to a very enterprising young man who has opened a cottage industry at the village to provide some employment to local people as part of his commitment to rural development. He himself stays in a town and only visits the unit periodically. The unit manufactures hand made incense sticks.
I sent an email to the address given in the website and within an hour got a phone call from the young gentleman, with who I had a long conversation. I have decided that I shall keep in regular touch with him, as I found him to be the kind of young man that will bring about change in our rural parts.
This young man, while could not give me much information, as he was not from the village, was able to get another contact very active in the local affairs of the village and passed on the telephone number to me by an sms message. I was able to speak to that contact who turned out to be closer to my father’s age and the two of them had a long conversation giving complete satisfaction to my father. The two of them have decided to be in touch with each other too.
Phew!