My Family And Other Animals

I am a total sucker for genealogy. And for ages I have tried and tried to trace my family waaaaaaaaaaay back ... could we possibly be hailing from the Mughuls? Hell, even the Mongols would do.

I came across one tiny set back though: I don'tknow any names beyond that of my dada. And even that, I only know the first half of. I think I know my nana's last name ... no, actually I don't.

Arrgh.

So I ran futile searches on 'Zainul Abedin' (which was useless as it was my dada's first name) and on 'Farooq' (equally useless as it is papa's first name) and even on 'Farooque' (which is a self-styled last name as I am overly-particular about correct usage of a 'ue' in conjunction with a 'q').

And I turned up nothing.

Nada. Zilch.

Man, I think we were DEPORTED to this planet or something.

And just when the going gets tough, the tough get married into one of Paksitan's most prominent families.

Nya-ha-ha-ha :)

Did you know that my Granduncle-in-law was Pakistan's first Prime Minister? *shine shine*

Ans os as one thing normally leads to another on the internet (as it does in real life, come to think of it) vanity googling turned into some Genealogy research on my NEW family and you know what?

My kids will be able to trace themselves back to the 13th century.

Aparently, their dad hails from the lineage of one Malik Mahmud Khan alias Qutb-ud-din Khan, Governor of Samana during the reign of Bahlol Lodi, Emperor of Delhi. Bahlol Lodi and Mahmud Khan being cousins themselves. And what exciting familyhistory it is ... tales of war and betrayal, takeovers and martyrs. Wow.

Apparently, the Ali Khan clan also owns 60 villages in some place called Karnal. Damn, and we're having a tough time paying our rent. :o

Also, the present Head of House of the Ali Khans is a Rukn-ud-Daulah Shamsher Jang Bahadur Nawab SHAHZAD ALI KHAN, Head of the Mandal-i-Nousherwani Family, born 27th August 1949.

Shall I present myself and ask for my due share in the inheritance?

Or shall I just be content in the knowledge that my own children will never fall prey to misgivings that they were banished to Planet Earth from a Galaxy far Far Away ...