Both my mother’s and father’s stories begin in Ghazni, Afghanistan.
My father’s father was born in Ghazni and was from the Wardak tribe, after facing some problems in Afghanistan, he decided to escape and as a kid he arrived in neighbouring country Pakistan at his time it was still all India. He arrived to a small city called Quetta, then known as little London. After a lot of striving and hard work he was able to build up a business and family life for himself. My father’s eldest brother first left for the UK and settled there with his wife where he had 2 children. My father later followed at the age of 15 and he travelled by road, its really amazing how so many like my father not knowing any language accept their own made their way by road from the sub continent to the UK and other European countries, and they would travel in busses, trains, walk, anyway they could get to their destinations. Once in the UK he went to live with his older brother where he completed a diploma in Aeronautical engineering and later went on to work for a company that built harrier fighter jets called Hawkes Sidley. Many years later he returned home and married my mother in Quetta.
My Mothers family history is very long but basically they were settled in Afghanistan and were some sort of royalty and played a big part in the politics going on at that time in Afghanistan, one night they were informed of an assassination plot against them and they left in the night leaving everything behind and made there way to Quetta. Once they arrived they settled there and built up their lives and businesses and did very well for themselves.
My mum married my father and both came back to London and in the next 30 years would face the biggest challenge that every single Pakistani/Indian family faced when they arrived. That was to adjust to the London lifestyle while hanging onto their faith, culture and values and to make sure their future children did not forget where they came from.
Like many families who migrated my parents had their fare share of problems adjusting and being so far away from home didn’t help. They had made consecutive goals to return home with their children and settle there but as time went by the idea of returning home became more bleak and continued to do so Until………..
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