Introduction

I have started this as a log of my journey from this day forward.  So many things happen daily that I have difficulty keeping up with it all.  As an adoptee from India I am in constant search of my identity.  Simple things as where I got my name, my actual birthday, stories of my biological family, stories of my adoptive family, the making of the documentary on my story and others, the communication with my family and many other things will be part of what I will journal as desired.

Yesterday was the first time I found the city, Tajpur,  that I was born in on a wikipedia map.  It is a small village in Northern India that was once home of a raja(royal) family.  My grandfather came to this place, called the Raja Ka Tajpur, from England and taught English to the Queen.  I only just learned of this yesterday in a conversation with my mother in Kolkata, India.  My 12 year old niece knows English and translated this bit of information from my mother as we were on the phone.  So now I have some insight into my paternal grandfather that is of interest in knowing a bit more of my identity. 

Also another bit of enlightening information that I learned in this conversation was how I got my name.  My name means the flower that the  hindus take to the temple for the gods as and offering.  My mother named me this because after giving birth to me in this village of Tajpur an elderly woman told her that she should name me “Pushpa” because then I would grow up to be beautiful and intelligent.  Well, I am not sure about living up to all of that but it is an interesting thought!  Also, I asked my niece “why would my mother listen to this lady?” and my niece replied “because she was an elder.”  So this is how I got my name that I struggled so much with my entire life to get people to pronounce properly and I have had to spell with every introduction to get people to understand what I was saying!  I will post more later…

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