Presently when time permits, i conduct oral interviews with some of the elderly Pakistani people i know. Some of them are my family members - such as my parents, aunts and uncles. Some of them are family family friends - people who know my parents or grandparents. I have also interviewed a friend's grandfather who came to Singapore from Sialkot, Pakistan at the age of 14!
I wish i could have the time to interview many more people. But owing to my day job as a teacher, i can only hope for the holidays to do them. Additionally, as much as the Indo-Pakistani community is somewhat interwoven, i believe there are still many families that we never have had the opportunity to meet.
As such i appeal to you - if you are interested to help i will be ever so grateful.
You could drop me a mail at abbaskhan.project@gmail.com anytime. Things need not be so formal :)
If you don't mind, you could always submit a write up of your family and/or your ancestor who migrated from the old country. You could do up a family tree and higlight some key information such as marriages, children, dates of birth and death. You could include some pictures or scanned photographs.
Additionally, you could also link me up to anyone in your family who is willing to share stories and experiences - preferably over tea ;)
Usually i will record these interviews. In fact, i am in the process of transcribing the interviews i've done, but it is indeed a painstaking process! (If you'd like to help me transcribe, i'd be grateful too!!)
Feel free to make yourself comfortable here. As mentioned, things need not be so formal. After all, good hospitability and close kinship ties are hallmarks of the heritage that we've inherited :)
Abbas Khan
Abbas Khan
