Musings of a Confused Soul

An eerie experience at “Queen Mary”!

This was in the early 90s. We moved to LA from Boston in 89 and since then we were site seeing in LA as much as we could by going to places here and there during weekends. One of those places we went to was “Queen Mary” the historically famous ship in Long Beach.

We booked a room on ‘Queen Mary’ itself for 1 night. We went there on July 4th and planned to come back on 5th. It took us a little less than an hour to get there. Once we reached there, the receptionist could not find any reservations for us. I told her, I spoke to someone and booked it with my credit card. She asked for that information and I gave it to her. Then she found it and told us that there was a mistake on their part and the room that was supposed to be for us, was given to others. So, she apologized and wanted to make it up to us by giving us the “presidential” suite.

Wow!!!
Yep! We were so excited to go in. Although once entered into the room, I was a bit disappointed. It was small but it looked fancy. I took a video while inside the room. As we started to look at the video right after filming, there were some glaring lights on some of those clips, which were sort of odd.

Hmmmmmm..... Of course, mind you…we did not know details about ‘Queen Mary’ at the time other than the fact it was famous. Later on, we came to know that the ship was haunted. Booooooo.
Well, one can always form one's own opinions.
So I will not be the one to insist that a ghost appeared on my video.

We settled in our “presidential” suite and started to go around the ship. That was when we found out, the ship is haunted (supposedly). Anyway, this story is not about ghosts. So let me get straight to the main focus on this story.

After going around the ship a bit, I noticed a gift store right outside. So we decided to go there to buy some souvenirs. The minute we stepped in, my eyes immediately fell on a humongous book with thousands of pages at the purchase counter. While my daughter and my husband were looking around in other areas I went straight to it. There was a salesman on the other side of the counter. He could have been the owner of the store.

He saw me looking at that gigantic book. He said to me
“Please, take a look inside the book you may be there”.
Huh!! I was a bit puzzled at what he said, So I said “I am sorry?”. That means, “What did you say?” putting it politely. Of course, I am sure most of you know what it means…but just in case if you are anything like my dad who would analyze everything that is said in English and compares it to British English…hah hah!! Just to make it clear for him, Dad, we Americans speak differently than British Ke Ke Ke!!

Anyway, I am not really sorry. I just wanted to know what the sales clerk meant! Then he said,
“Yeah, your name may be in that book. Look for it”.
I said, “Why would my name be in it?”
He still insisted and said “look for your last name it maybe there”

Aaaahhgggghrrrr…
I was getting frustrated…
What the heck is he saying??

So I asked him again.
“Why would my last name be there? What is this book?”
That is when I actually touched the book and started to open.
He said, “It is a genealogy book” before he started to finish the sentence I said “Oooh….really…I am so into ancestors. Is this for all human beings?" Ke ke ke!!! Regardless of race and color?.
[Oh, by the way, Dad, we write ‘Color’ NOT Colour’ in America. Ha ha!]

Then he completed the sentence while I was blabbering about how interested I am in genealogy.
He said “It is a genealogy book for Irish people”.
HUH???!!!???
I suddenly felt a big ‘blob’ hitting my head or went inside my brain!! WHAT???
What just happened?
Why would he even say my name would be there in an Irish Genealogy book?....
I started to look at him to see if he is wearing his glasses or not.
Of course, I wouldn’t know if he even wears those! Dah!
Then I wanted to see if there is any mirror so I can be sure it was ‘me’ and not some ‘Irish ghost’ came into my body. Anyway, I just looked him in the eye and said with a smile “Oh…you are joking huh?”
Thinking he was maybe making a not so funny remark.
Most non-white people once in their lifetime, even to this day and age, automatically ASSUME he/she was being discriminated against!
Sadly that is what I did ☹
Then he said, with a damn straight face “No no, you may still be in there. Have a look”.
I was confused!
Not sure if he was mocking me or being sincere!
He knows I am dark-skinned and don’t have green eyes or red hair.
So why in the world is he saying that?
[That is the 'stereotype' for Irish people anyway]
So I laughed and said “yeah!! Right!!”
Thought I can mock him too by saying that.
Why not… right?
Then… he became serious, and said, “No take a look and I can bet you, your family name will probably be there.”
I sort of gave a smirk and scoffed.
He saw that and said, “take a look, take a look” and started attending to another customer.
Oh well why not, I thought, so I started to look for my last name. Going through A, B, C….and came to K. I should have looked for C first because…of my maiden name. But I guess I am used to the one with ‘K’ now so automatically went for ‘K’ by skipping ‘C’ without even realizing.

Are you getting this? Am I confusing you?

Okay, I am over several pages with ‘K’ and looking and looking…and finally found the next letter and the next letter and the next one… that is correct….found it. My last name in an Irish genealogy book?!!!

I was so enthralled by it. (I am not sure why?) I couldn’t control my enthusiasm!! Even before calling my daughter and my husband I told the sales guy with a raised voice “I found it I found it”, while he was still helping another customer. That customer was wondering ‘what was going on’ I bet!
The sales clerk turns around and very casually says, “I told you, you would be there” and went back talking to the other customer.
I am dumbfounded by the way he said with so much assertiveness! How does he know that?
Boooo…paranormal activity going on here somewhere?
I showed it to my daughter and my husband. We were in awe! So I decided to look for my maiden name and then my mom’s maiden name. No luck. I couldn’t find those.

After thought...
After seeing my last name in that book, I have decided to do some research on this.
My research revealed the following:
It is a well-known fact that Ancient Indians were seafaring people and all our epics mention that fact too.
Thousands and thousands of years back they have actually traveled towards Ireland, Lithuania, Africa, South America, etc. for trading purposes.
Even in Lithuanian literature, there is a mentioning of darker-skinned people entering as traders from the southern part of the globe and some stayed back.
Well, we all know the world map is like a puzzle. Everything fits well if you really look at it. It was possible in those days to travel through seas to distant lands without much effort. Some of their language/words also have Sanskrit origins. Even in our epics such as Mahabharata, there are plenty of stories about how Arjuna traveled to different continents and married someone in each place. (Hmmm!!!)

Back then there was no India like the way we have now. Ancient Indian [Bharat] culture was practiced in many parts of the world such as Mesopotamia (What was UR then and now called Iraq), Parts of Egypt, Persia and more) Oh well…if I write it I will go on and on…so go ahead and google it if you are interested in ancestry and stuff.

Thanks for reading my story you all.