Back in Melbourne

 A staggering number of things needed to happen for the Pooran story to pan out this way – the Guyett family in Warrnambool had to respect a dying man’s last wish for three generations; historians Len Kenna and Crystal Jordan had to chance upon the story and pass it on to me; an international celebrity like Kapil Dev had to set aside his personal and professional commitments and be moved enough to pay his way to come to Australia; the extended family of Pooran Singh had to be traced and be involved in the story; the media in Australia had to warm up to it, despite an election being called and the media in India had to take notice of an Australia-India story that was running ‘against the tide’; and finally, SBS Radio had to award an inaugural funding to the Punjabi program so I could use the resources to go to India and see this story through to its logical conclusion.

I think if this were a novel, we couldn’t have scripted it better. Normally, we start a story with a few clues, and try to piece together different bits of information that we’ve painstakingly collected. But the Pooran phenomenon is so unique, that even though we started with one small piece of information – that his ashes were preserved in Warrnambool cemetery – we are all wonderstruck to see the giant jigsaw that has suddenly fallen into place!

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About this Blog

I’m back in Melbourne now, and this is the first chance I’ve had to reflect on all that’s happened in the past few weeks.  Although the pace has been fast and furious, all of us involved in this extraordinary journey feel satisfied, proud and completely at peace. We’ve defied Murphys’ law, since everything that could possibly go wrong actually went right – absolutely, perfectly right!

 
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