Linda’s #SoCS prompt this week…

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “inter-” Use the prefix “inter-” any way you’d like. Enjoy!

Inter-national.

That’s where I’m gonna go with this Stream of Consciousness post.

Here I sit, in lil old England born and bred, yet I’m not English.

British, I call myself, or a British Asian. Some say British – born.

Yet my background has a little more colour than your average Brit.

Yes, I was born here, but to Sikh parents.

Who moved here from Kenya.

Who were born in Kenya.

Who’s forefathers came over from the Punjab in India to help build the railways in Africa.

So there is a huge Kenyan influence on my upbringing, and life. I spent many summers there growing up, so I was able to cultivate relationships with all the family we had out there.

But I’m also Indian.

That’s a part of me I can’t hide. My skin tells that story. And whatever anyone else thinks, that is a part of my heritage I am proud of too. From the clothes we wear, to the music we listen to, the food we eat, to the way we practice our religion, it is all part of me.

So… Am I a British person, a British Asian, a British Kenyan, a British Kenyan Asian…?

And while we’re on the subject of international family, my brother lives in Finland, married to a Finnish girl, with a beautiful Finnjabi/Finndian son! Another dimension to add to our family!

On top of that, my extended family have managed to spread far and wide… From India, they dispersed to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Then there came the UK, Canada, the USA and Australia. Obviously we invaded Finland, but there was already a branch of my family in Norway and Sweden! Dubai is another place!

(Oh and I didn’t mention that my ancestors from my Pops side many generations previously, were apparently Muslim, so there is probably a Pakistan link there too! Sikhism is a relatively new religion and most families were either Muslim or Hindu before they converted to this new religion, so it really annoys me when there are Sikhs  clashing with Muslims… unless you have researched it, you don’t know if your own roots were in Islam!)

Inter-national connections, that’s what I have!