6 degrees of Separation

Hey peeps...I am sorry for not posting anything the past week.. owing to a hectic schedule + complete lack of inspiration to blog maketh an un-updated blog.

Anyhoo.. amidst all the hoo haa of living my life these past week..it struck me that .. everyone seems to be connected to one another be it blood relations or friend of friends at some point of their lives.. amazing stuff right. I wiki-ed about six degrees of separation and this is what I got:

"Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person he or she knows and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people he or she knows, then everyone is an average of six "steps" away from each person on Earth."

Six degrees of separation diagram

(diagram courtesy of Wikipedia and its sources)

Fascinating stuff ne c'est pas? Am not gonna blog extensively about this however, what i do wanna share with you is this. As you know..I hail from land below the wind... although I have relatives here in the abode of peace I would never expect for them to be in my same workplace.. a naive assumption I guess seeing that my workplace has about 700++ staff. I only realized last week that I had a cousin working on the same floor as I was .. I have worked with him..passed each other going to and from our rooms at the office corridors several times, instructed him etc. and this went on for hmmm.. about half a year and I had absolutely no inkling that he is even remotely related to me.. until recently.

My grandaunt passed on last week.. (may her soul be blessed by Allah SWT) , I told some colleagues that I will be going back slightly early as the funeral will be held later in the day.. that's when my colleague asked... how are you related to "so and so" and asked if i am going back soon. I went huh ? apparently he was also going back early to ensure they get to the house for the funeral. God Almighty! he apparently knows me already.. I was embarrassed to say the least as it is apparent that I don't really know my relatives that well. Good thing that the other relatives don't know about this, they would have a field day. To date I know of 2 relatives already in the same work place by blood or through marriage. Small world this is.

My Gran and my late Grandad got married during the War. She came from Singapore and my Grandad was from Sabah my Great Grandad was originally from Brunei but left for Sabah on business and decided to live there. I digress..the story goes that my Grandad travelled to Singapore to study and asked for her hand in marriage after he heard my Grans voice on the radio reciting the Quran . Truth or not.. my late Grandad would never have "met" or married her for that matter had he not gone to Singapore. When they moved to Land below the wind..My Granddad's step brother later on married my Gran's half sister ! again.. that would not have happend had my Grandad never set foot in Singapore. That would be case no.1.

Case no. 2: my Aunt married her childhood sweet heart and later on.. childhood sweethearts brother married my aunts first cousin. Another sample of how things gets entwined.

Case no.3: my Uncles are mostly married to people from outside of Land below the wind. Most of them would never had met each other if they had not gone for studies overseas and met each other or knows friends or of someone who introduced them or chance meetings that became more than what would be just strangers passing each other .

And Finally Case no.4: Moi! I got married to someone who is totally not of my nationality, has nothing to do with my family already existing in the Abode of peace but whose family knows my family living here.

It's just a wonder to me how at some point in our lives we meet people who happens to know someone we know who knows your family or friends or are even related to. The world is getting smaller precipitated by the progress of technology. Small world indeed.