The Sikh Geek

I saw an announcement today on the IBM website regarding the appointment of a new IBM General Manager for IBM Global Business Partners, Ravi Marwaha. Now why is that so interesting? The thing that struck me was his surname “Marwaha” as it’s a Sikh surname. Moreover, it is my maternal grandmother’s maiden name and I have a lot of relatives who are Marwaha’s. Sikhs are a very small community worldwide and it doesn’t take us long to find a link with someone. The probability is that there is a link there somewhere going back to a particular village in the Punjab. From the surname you can tell whether someone belongs to a group of Sikhs called the Ramgharia and to which my surname belongs as well.