How I found my home: A journey back to India, after more than a century

Neel Maharaj, an Indo-Trinidadian entrepreneur, recalls how he traced his roots to UP's Basti

“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots” -- Marcus Garvey

Among those settled abroad, you usually find two kinds of Indians. The first kind are those who wish to never return to India. And then there are people who get up each morning and say to themselves – now I must get home. The ‘Indianness’ the latter kind of Indians carry with them is not an obligation but a yearning to stay connected with their roots, their soil.

I am the latter kind. Before I decided