About my life.
I was born in beautiful South Africa, of Indian decent, in a multicultural city, Pietermaritzburg, with a population of over a million and a capital of the region Kwazulu Natal.
The eldest of five children, growing up in the late seventies and eighties seemed a normal life to me, but when I look back on the kind of life it was, it really wasn’t as normal as you would think, the apartheid system was then a barrier to our lives. My dad was affected by the name calling but to me it didn’t mean much at that time, being at a young age I don’t think about it until much older and the realisation of all that had affected us it all sunk in, sometime in the late eighties.
Indian only toilets, and schools, hospitals, and all facilities were off limits to the dark coloured people, the wall between us had made all feel like outsiders. That life makes me wonder now of how Indians have reached their top levels in a country that had finally broken that system.
It didn’t stop there, when I married my Croatian husband all eyes focused on us in public, going to the store, and to listen to comments of others and the starring, it was like we were from a space ship, like alienated creatures, a mixed raced couple, I didn’t mind their stares. When my son was born he too had problems at school, being teased about having an Indian mother, that blew off.
Socially we were pushed to one side at times, job offers were turned down and to think of all that and look at it now. The point is that what did racial issues do to every one in South Africa?
Things have changed and I am so glad for that, at one one time Indians couldn’t attend the best universities, or schools but now a new life is open to all
I do feel good living in a country that accepts me for who I am and not bother about the colour of my skin.
Welcome to Authspot, the spot for creative writing.
Read some stories and poems, and be sure to subscribe to our feed!
