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The Quest for Roots. Looking for the long lost DAD! Disappointed Jamie Henshall has gone back to Australia where he lives now! He flew to Dhaka, the city where I live, on January 4, 2017 for the first time to look for his long lost father who was once a chef in Manchester with a couple of photos taken in 1979 of his parents’ wedding. Jamie is an Englishman now living in Australia where he works as a chef. He never heard from his father since his parents parted ways in the 80's. Henshall was only two and a half years old then but now that he is going to become a father, he embarked on a quest for his roots. The story of Jamie looking for his father is a touchy true one! Only someone of mixed heritage can relate to it. I read this heartbreaking story published on January 21, 2017 in the local English language newspaper, “The Daily Star”, and have now decided to share it with others to ponder, Here below are pasted some of the extracts from the story published in the newspaper for those who would like to know more about this story; He knew only that his father, whose name was Suab Ali according to the marriage certificate he got from his mother, was from Old Dhaka and his grandfather Umad Ullah was a “leather spinner” at a leather factory. But that wasn't enough to find his father, who should be 62 years old, if alive. On top of this, Henshall only had two weeks time in Bangladesh. “This visit was the first big step on my journey to find my heritage,” he told the correspondent at the lobby of a city hotel last week. His parents Ann Henshall and Suab Ali got married in Manchester in 1979. His father named him Mohammed Husain Ali when he was born, which was later changed by his mother. Quoting his mother, Henshall said his father, a chef at a restaurant at the time, had to come back to Bangladesh for some emergency. “My father tried to bring me back with him, but my mother wanted to raise me and educate me there. So, she just ran away taking me and a suitcase, leaving everything in the house they had behind.” Apart from a couple of pictures of his parents' wedding, he has nothing of his father. Suab Ali took everything along when he left the UK in 1986. His mother, who still lives in Manchester, and he never heard from his father since. “I'm about to become a father very soon. It's really important that my knows my heritage. That's why I have embarked on this quest.” Having stayed in the Old Dhaka neighborhoods for two weeks and been associated with the culture of his father, he got answers to questions that had bothered him all his life. “Old Dhaka has really helped me understand my character. I know from where I got my sweet tooth, charm, cheeky nature, hard work and positive way of thinking,” he said. Henshall had always wondered how his life would have been had his father brought him to Bangladesh. The visit, he said, helped him understand that to some extent. “I feel a deep connection. Like my father, I had become a trained chef when I was 15 and worked in some upscale restaurants and organizations.” He went to Australia nine years ago when he was offered the position of head chef at the central bank of Australia. He settled there and later founded his own media agency on food. “I want to find my father not to be mad at him but to just meet him and understand myself better.” During his stay in Dhaka, he went to the British High Commission here. He also contacted the Bangladesh high commission in the UK. “I wanted to know whether he had a UK passport, his arrival date in Bangladesh and any other identification, but they said they didn't have the information from back then.” Henshall also told a lot of people his story and went to the police. People here are very friendly. Everyone has been very hospitable and welcoming, he said. “My mother did a great job raising me. The only unfortunate thing is my father and mother never kept in touch after they parted ways and he never contacted me.” He wished that his father had looked up his mother's family name on the social media and found him. “I will come back again to search for him,” Henshall said. Photo Details: Jamie Henshall showing on his phone his parents wedding photo taken in 1979. Source:Akram Hosen. The Daily Star,Dhaka. 
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I am sure,Jamie will find his dad one day!
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Perhaps I have an old fashioned take on these situations. I believe if the man had wanted to be "found", he would have made attempts to keep in contact with his son. He could have even sought him out when he was older. Personally, I have very little interest in my "roots". I knew one of my great grandmothers and knew of one of the others, but that is as far as I know. My grandmother took me to the cemetery on Memorial Day, and gave me a family lesson as we put flowers on the graves when I was a little girl, but once I grew up and moved away, that ended. I have a brother in law who was adopted. I once asked him if he ever wondered about his real parents. He said, "Nope. Why would I? Mom and Dad loved me and raised me..... They ARE my real parents." Be a prism, spreading God's light and love, not a mirror reflecting the world's hatred.
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Hello Maisie, Thank you so much for your responses to the true story posted at above by me. I am really happy to read the story uploaded by you because it has a happy ending! Jamie's story is a bit different. This man never knew his father. His mother though raised him successfully, did not apparently tell him enough about his father. He was deprived of fatherly love when he needed it most. In Jamie's case, the missing father seems to have always played a part silently while he was growing up! I believe that Jamie's quest for finding his roots will end happily also like the story told by you! Have a nice weekend.
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Perhaps I have an old fashioned take on these situations. I believe if the man had wanted to be "found", he would have made attempts to keep in contact with his son. He could have even sought him out when he was older. Personally, I have very little interest in my "roots". I knew one of my great grandmothers and knew of one of the others, but that is as far as I know. My grandmother took me to the cemetery on Memorial Day, and gave me a family lesson as we put flowers on the graves when I was a little girl, but once I grew up and moved away, that ended. I have a brother in law who was adopted. I once asked him if he ever wondered about his real parents. He said, "Nope. Why would I? Mom and Dad loved me and raised me..... They ARE my real parents." Thank you so much for taking interest on this blog of mine. I feel that in this case both the parents were responsible for depriving the boy from having fatherly love. Moreover, the parents lived thousands of miles apart from each other in two continents. As such they never bothered to ascertain whether the boy was missing his biological father or not while he was growing up. Have a nice week.
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