English | Indian

My mum is English and dad is Indian, born in Calcutta. He met my mum in England so I am born and bred English. They met through their love of music. My dad was a violinist, my mum loved to sing and play piano. I have 6 siblings in total, I was born into quite a big family. My older brothers and sisters are half Croatian. Being born and bred in London is great because it’s such a multicultural place, I’ve never really thought twice about it. I think so many mixes are the norm.
I think it’s interesting to hear people’s stories about racism and negativity because of their mixed heritage, for me personally I have never encountered anything. For my dad it must have been hard to be accepted into my mum’s English family. For me growing up they accepted me as one of them. They don’t call me their half-sister.
When I was 5 or 6 years old we went a few times to India, my mum was very in touch with the Indian culture and is a Buddhist. She would take us to my father’s family home there. I remember coconut trees and running around in the garden, festivals and lots of colour.
Unfortunately, my mum and my dad divorced and since then I haven’t really kept in touch with my dad. It has been quite difficult, I became very anti-Indian. Now that I am getting older I would like to go back to India. It’s part of my heritage and I only have those memories from when I was 5 or 6 years old. I would like to re-experience it as an adult.