The Origin Story

This is the key artefact of my Origin Story. This is the slip of paper that made my life and everything that has happened since May 1963 possible.

Just as Superman or Spiderman had an origin story, this gives me that vital "truth", the historic context, of how my parents came to settle in the UK.

The Voucher is one of the many filed old papers from my parent's precious holdall. It had been there untouched since 1963. It is a very important document and without it, my dad would not have been able to enter the country to work. It was issued to migrant workers. There is more information about it here: http://www.movinghere.org.uk/galleries/histories/asian/settling/settling.htm

What it tells me is that this was issued about 6 months after my grandfather died. (He died circa November 1962). It tells me my dad, named in the voucher as Miahdan Ullah, had this voucher validated on 27th November 1963 (he entered the UK much earlier, in April but I'll talk about that when I scan in the airline ticket). It tells me that at the time of issue, my father was East Pakistani. (Bangladesh did not form until 1971). Already, this has given me a backdrop, a time, a place and maybe even an insight into the personal thoughts he might have struggled with. Perhaps there was a hidden relief in my father knowing that HIS father did not have to deal with his eldest son leaving their land and his rightful place running the family. I might speculate that there was a disagreement between them, that my father rebelled and did the application without my grandfather's knowledge. Maybe my mother might agree with my speculation but we will never really know.

The voucher also tells me his occupation was "Cultivator". The address line is significant, not only because the country is Pakistan but that this is the same address for my parent's village even today. It's difficult to describe how the postal sysyem works but "V" or "Villa" is for Village (Mukimpur), "P.O." is for Post Office (Lamja), "Dist" refers to District (Sylhet). There should be a further division between post office and District for the Town which is Habiganj. It's very close to Sylhet in the North Eastern part of Bangladesh, close to the border with Assam.

The physical location of this address covers a fairly wide area. Village is more akin to a hamlet and not strictly speaking a specific house with a door number, especially in a rural area.

Google Maps shows it here:

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