MY EARLY YEARS

Before I was born my father went to Manchester with very little money but big dreams and the desire to work hard and start a business. Little did he know that he would set up a business empire and gradually settle his brothers and their families in Manchester with him. After I was about 6 months old he called my mother, me and my brother to join him whilst my two elder sisters stayed in Bombay with my grandparents. We lived in a small flat, my mother was in a new Country and couldn’t speak the language and times were tough. However there were a few Indian families already living in Manchester and they took us in and helped us to settle down. Gradually Daddy managed to buy a house and then called over my sisters to join us. Meanwhile as he expanded his business he called over first my eldest Chacha and his family and then my second Chacha. We didn’t have huge houses there where we could all live together so he set everyone up in small but comfortable little houses. The bond and love between the families was fantastic and we would all meet at least once a week and the ladies would cook up a feast and the kids would run wild.

I remember that my first school, Broadoaks Primary School, was only about 10 minutes from our house and I would cycle to school everyday. It was also my job to cycle to the corner shop for groceries, bread and anything we ran short of. This was great when I first started cycling and I would go very happily but the sheen soon wore off after a few trips!

We were extremely lucky with our neighbours. On one side we had an elderly English couple called Mr and Mrs Schofield and I used to call Mrs Schofield Nana and I was her favourite. I used to spend long afternoons in her house and she used to fill the sink with hot soapy water and put a bunch of clean spoons in so that I could pretend to wash up. Our neighbour on the other side was also an elderly English lady who was widowed very young called Aunty Riley. Aunty Riley became like a second mother to all of us and she and mummy became great friends even though neither could speak each other’s language. I remember one day mummy was sitting at the dining table, which overlooked the main road, drinking a cup of tea. Aunty came into the room and picked up the bottle of milk from the table, took it into the kitchen and poured some into a milk jug. She said “ Mrs Ruia… you should never put a bottle of milk on the table… what will the neighbours think”!! She was a lovely person and really taught us a lot of etiquette and what we should and shouldn’t do. She came to India on a number of occasions and we all loved her to bits.

Daddy used to take us out to restaurants every Saturday night and our favourite was called CanCan or we used to go to one called Kardomah. If the weather was nice on a Sunday we would all pile into the car and go for a picnic into the countryside. Mummy would pack a delicious lunch of karahi ki puri, alu sabzi and lemonade and we thought we were kings.

We all enjoyed simple things like blind man’s bluff, hop scotch, hide and seek and rounders. Despite not having loads of money we enjoyed every moment of our life and when I think back to those times I realise how innocent and simple we were. We were happy with what we had and the love my parents gave all of us was all we needed. We celebrated all our Indian festivals with gusto with the whole clan gathering together in one or the other houses. I think this is one of the biggest things I learnt from those days… how important family are and how much we learn and grow together. This is one thing I have tried to imbibe into my children. I still have a lovely connect with my cousins and we all meet up whenever I visit Manchester and spend a lovely evening filled with laughter and reminiscing about our early years.