Une histoire de famille (document en anglais)

In this text we read about the history of a family who had to leave their homeland situated in Kashmir on reason of the British Empire, who had conquered and parted their land of origin. The main person of the text, Farocq, was thirteen years old when his family had to leave Kashmir for Great Britain. Although Farouq had to go to work when he was very young, he succeeded brilliantly in business and become a millionair in the UK.

Moreover, , the fact that the Prime Minister was about to propose him to become an Officer of the Order of the British Empire shows that Great Britain, which caused the departure of that family from their homeland, wants now to honor the sun of that same family.

As in the family of Farouq, nobody seems to have died or suffered physically during the events, and that many other people of Kashmir shared the same destiny, are probably elements which helped that

family to accept to construe t a new life elsewhere.

The fact that the second generation recovered an excellent financial and social level helped them certainly to forget about the difficulties of, the past and to have a positive attitude towards their situation.

In Europe, after World War II, many people had to leave their countries for political reasons. Those who succeeded in constructing a new satisfying existence in a new country, could generally get rid of the heaviness

of their memories of the past. It is more important to be in peace with our own history, than to forget about it. Unless a man looses his mind, I think that humans are not born to forget but to learn to get through the difficulties of the past. We are not born to forget but to grow.

That's why culture is so important. More we know, more we grow in maturity. Maturity helps us to set a distance between us and an event which happens to us. This distance allows us to look at the events of the past without any need to forget about them. Past events are part of us. How can we be plainly alive, when we try to put apart important parts of ourselves ? Difficult events are an invitation to grow, in order to what we should be : human beings.

Life makes sense when we use our capacities to get always up again. Jesus, on his way to the Golgotha he fell three times, but he got up again. And one of his last words on the cross were "Father forgive them, they don't know what they are doing. Into they hands I commend my spirit."

For me this resumes the way I try to handle past events : Never forget but look forward by understanding, forging and keeping confident. Thanks to culture we know that history can be ironic as those who caused once the fall of a family, can rise that same family again.

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