In search of her roots

A recent piece in the media has reported that a young Dutch woman named Nowmi Welemsen has come to Madarganj upazila of Jamalpur district to trace her roots and find her near and dear ones.
Last year, her mother Lipi Begum came to Bangladesh with the same purpose. When she was just three months old, Lipi's actual mother had given her to an orphanage in Dhaka. The mother, who hailed from Jamalpur district, was forced to do this as she was financially not in a position to take care of her three children, following the death of her husband. A few years later, in 1977, a Dutch citizen came to the orphanage and applied to the authority to adopt a three-year old Lipi Begum. That individual took Lipi Begum to the Netherlands. Since then, Lipi has lived in Europe. However, she has been looking for her birth mother. Last year, she visited Jamalpur with her husband Jespiar Welemsen and tried to find her family. But she was unsuccessful.
Now Lipi's younger daughter, Nowmi has come to the country to search for her mother's family.
We often come across such news in the media where non-resident Bangladeshis and their relatives return to the country to trace their loved ones. These incidents tell us that people feel a need to go back to their roots no matter how far these are from them and the hardships that they may face during the journey.
I hope that Lipi Begum will be able to find her mother and family.
Hosne Ara
Dhanmondi, Dhaka