Loving Wales

My mother was Indian and met my English father during the war. She was a staff sergeant and he was a captain. She got the Burma star for her military work against the Japanese. She was a heroine. 

When I was born I was an Anglo-Indian as we were called in those days. Now I am called mixed heritage. My mother could pass as white but my uncle and aunt could not. So when she moved to Britain, she decided to deny her life in India because there was so much blatant racism at the time. As the years went by, we became known as a tolerant country, so she brought back her Indian life into our home. It was, however, too late for me to be tri-lingual in Urdu, Hindi and English. Something I regret to this day. The only thing my mother could not disguise was her Indian accent so when people asked where she was from, she said she was Welsh.

Growing up, my life was spent travelling. I left Norfolk where I was born when I was three years old because my father was a head teacher and followed his work and we never stopped moving. I became a teacher and also carried on moving. 

Our family therefore moved all over the world starting from Cornwall,to Malaya (as it was called then, still under the British Empire), to Kent, then Derbyshire, Surrey, Wales, London, Essex, France, Hampshire and finally Wales again. My saying is that wherever I hang my hat, that’s my home.

I am going to be controversial here.

I have no roots. I have no allegiance to any country. I have no loyalty to any country, anthem or flag. Because of my international lifestyle, I just see people as people and I am certainly colour-blind.I saw the racism in Britain and I was horrified. I vowed I would always fight against it.

Later on when we lived in Wales, it was the time of serious anti-English attitudes. They were burning English homes. The English were ironic about this and had a saying, “ Come home to a real fire, buy a house in Wales.” 

We had a different experience in our village of Cwmdare. We had a lovely neighbour called May and even to this day, our lovely Chapel-loving, Welsh- speaking May remains in our hearts. She always introduced my mother as Indian because being English was not a good thing. It was so funny having the racism turned upside down, which meant that it was better to be Indian than English.

Due to May, she was our support in the village. Everyone was pleasant to us. We were made to feel welcome. The funny part was that in the village pub they would be talking in Welsh and then we would come in and the conversations would stop. When we started talking to the barman, in English, then the conversations would carry on in Welsh and then we would sit down and chat to the ones we knew. 

After they got used to us they would carry on talking in Welsh because they realised that we liked it, just listening to the sound of this lovely language. I had a promotion to a new school where I became head of department of a comprehensive school. I brought all their work home to see what level they were all at and to sort out how to push them forward. May came in and looked at all the papers of 1000 children. She checked on whether I was eating lunch. I told her I didn’t have time and from then on that lovely woman brought me a tray of food everyday for my lunch. Wonderful memories of a wonderful Welsh lady!

With my fond memories of Wales and the Welsh, I moved on in my career and kept travelling. Itchy feet! But wherever I lived, I involved myself in local communities. I either joined a group that meant a great deal to me or I volunteered to support the community.

My husband was Portsmouth born and bred and I would talk to him about Wales. He was always very interested. One day I asked him if he would like to move to Wales and at first he wasn’t sure. Half an hour later he popped back and said, “Yes, let’s do it”. He said that my memories had been so lovely that he wanted to share them.

All my life I have demonstrated against injustice and because of my Indian background, I have demonstrated against racism. I started young when I was at university in the sixties. So at the age of eighteen I was standing up for the rights of people of colour and so demonstrated against South Africa due to their apartheid and boycotted companies who supported it like Outspan and Barclays bank.

Many of you will not remember or know about the Vietnam war where the Americans took over from the French and continued their wicked fight against their idea of what communism was. They dropped napalm on civilian Vietnamese, and destroyed whole villages. I regularly demonstrated against this.

I joined the Anti-Nazi league and demonstrated with them on a regular basis.

At the age of 80, I am having to start again in Wales. It is a great disappointment to me that I have started demonstrating again against the racism that is raising its ugly head in Wales. I see the awful faces of hate facing me in a demonstration and wonder where this country is now going.

I shall not name political parties or politicians but we all know, don’t we? These people are breeding hate and why should we want to hate someone because of their colour.

Let us bring hate to an end. The refugees become the people who take care of you in hospitals or care homes. My Indian mother was a hero during the Second World War. She made a massive contribution to this country and I admire her for that. By all means be proud of Wales, not the hatred which is turning some Welsh people against any person of colour. 

Let us welcome refugees and let us become a tolerant country again.