English | Indian

MRF-Danyal Dhondy.jpg

My Dad (originally from Persia, now called Iran) moved to the UK to go to university. After that he got a teaching job and my mom also got a teaching job in the same school. So they were both teachers for a little while when they met. I grew up in London, I sort of had a idea, there was something special and unique about having other cultures I could tap into, but at the same time I was quite integrated in British culture, I didn't feel like I was an outsider really I guess. 
I've sort of fitted in and maybe it's that my skin isn't dark enough to make people assume that I'm not white, automatically it varies depending on the seasons as well or maybe it's kind of my attitude and behavior it doesn't strike people as particularly different.
I guess a lot of the culture feels a little strange to me, but then when something does come up, that you know and recognize from childhood, you do feel a sort of warmth. 
Not learning languages is a sort of regret, I wish my dad had made a bit of an effort to teach me Hindi when I was little. I think he said 'oh, well you will just pick it up'. But my sisters and I did not pick it up even though we sort of would listen to him speaking on the phone in Hindi regularly. We get the sound of the rhythm and the cadence of the language but yeah it’s something that I would like to. I've got a bit of a block about languages and my current goal is to learn French because I'm actually living part of the time in France with my girlfriend at moment. She’s also mixed race, she's half German, half Swiss. 
The only negative thing I can think of really was the day after the brexit vote, I was walking down the road, crossing the road or something and a car pulled up and some dude leaned out the window and shouted something slightly obscene, like 'go home' and then they drove off. At first I thought, were they speaking to me? Or to someone else? Actually that's the first time I've ever had a racial abuse instant in my life.