Who Do You Think You Are - Nitin Ganatra 4th Sep

[kiterunner]

He plays Masood in East Enders.
9 p.m. on BBC1 and then repeated on Thursday night at 10:35, also on BBC1.

[Margaret in Burton]

Should be interesting. The Meera Syal one in India was very good.

[Merry]

Originally Posted by Margaret in Burton

Should be interesting.

Crosses everything that it is! I still have Nick Hewer to watch!

[Margaret in Burton]

Originally Posted by Merry

Crosses everything that it is! I still have Nick Hewer to watch!

Don't attempt to watch if you are tired, perfect insomnia treatment.

[Merry]

lol Marg! I'd better not watch it then!!!

[Margaret in Burton]

Good one tonight. Very interesting.

[kiterunner]

Episode synopsis (apologies for many mis-spellings of names and place names, corrections will be gratefully received!)

Nitin Ganatra lives in London with his wife and children. He was born in Kenya and he moved to England with his family when he was 3, in 1971.

Nitin started his research by visiting his father Jayantilal and mother Manglaben in Coventry, also his brother Charlie and Charlie's wife. Jayantilal was also born in Kenya. The family lived in Broderick Falls (now called Webuye) and ran family businesses there. Jayantilal's grandfather Popatlal Ganatra was the first of the Ganatra family to go to Kenya, to work on the railway, in the late 1890's. Manglaben, Nitin's mother, told him that she and her sister used to have to work as children because their father Kesharjibhai was often ill, and that her parents Kesharjibhai and Santochar got married when they were aged 10 and 6 respectively.

Nitin went to Kenya, to the Railway Museum in Nairobi, and was told that many Gujeratis went to East Africa at the end of the 19th century to work on building the railways, to escape a big famine in India. Most returned to India afterwards but some stayed in Africa. The museum does not hold records of individual labourers.

Nitin went to Broderick Falls / Webuye and met a former resident who remembered when it was a very small village. Popatlal started his own general store there and brought his family over from India. In 1955 Nitin's father joined the family business. Nitin visited the shop where his father used to work.

In 1963 Kenya gained its independence and laws were brought in over the next few years which restricted the opportunities for Asians if they did not give up their British citizenship to become full Kenyan citizens. This was the reason why many left Kenya and came to Britain.

Nitin visited the city of Rajkat in Gujerat, India, to visit his cousin and his mother's sister. His aunt told him that her father (Nitin's grandfather) left home at the age of 14 and went to Zanzibar to serve an apprenticeship in a shop. When he returned to India, he developed kidney problems. He and Nitin's grandmother had ten children but eight died young, with only Nitin's mother and his aunt surviving. Nitin visited the city where the family used to live, and went to the record office where he met a researcher into child mortality, who told him that it was unusual for so many children in one family to die in those days. Not all deaths were / are registered in India, but they found the registration of the second youngest child, a girl called Dudhibai who died on the 19th March 1945 at the age of six, of "fever" which had lasted for 15 days. The researcher said that this would probably have been malaria, and that the children of child brides tended to be weak and more susceptible to illnesses.

Nitin went to Jharera in Gujarat, where Popatlal came from, and met the oldest man in town, believed to be over 100, who said he remembered the Ganatras, who grew cotton and ran a shop. He said that he remembered Popatlal returning to India with a lot of money and taking his family to Africa with him, including Kakubhai, Nitin's grandfather.

Nitin met a caste historian in Porbandar who knew of a written record of the Ganatra family held by a high priest in the holy city of Mathura. Nitin went to see this book and saw the family names going back 9 generations to his 7xg-grandfather Hukkabhai Ganatra. He was also shown that his father had written his own name in when they visited when Nitin was 8. Nitin then added the names of his own children.

[kiterunner]

I thought this was the best episode they've had for some time.

But could that old man in Jarera really remember the Ganatras? What year did they emigrate to Kenya? If Papitlal went over there in the late 1890's, then went back to India to fetch his family, what year was that, I wonder? How old would the man have to be to remember them?

[Piwacket]

I thought it was very interesting, in a different from the usual way.


Perhaps it was in Meera Syal's we saw about the amazing records of families they keep.... how incredible it would be to go to some place and find what we need all in one fell swoop But surely Nitin's father (if Nitin couldn't) would have remembered visiting the place and making an entry in the records? Seemed odd to me.

That old chap must have been about 115 at least to remember Papitlal? Perhaps he was referring to Nitin's father 'being eager' to go to Kenya?

It's such an intriguing country of contrasts - fascinating such poverty alongside such beauty and wealth. Don't think I could visit - I'd be forever asking questions to try to fathom some logic

[Olde Crone]

I really enjoyed this, probably because it was so different!

However I couldn't help feeling that Nitrin's father could have short-circuited the research by mentioning the fact that a Ganatra pedigree existed in the holy City!

And...that 100 year old man wasn't very convincing with his recall. He was being prompted all the time. I don't think he remembered the family at all.

OC