}
Mrs Raj Kochar by Maherush [OH844]
Fishponds resident Maherush Khan interviews Mrs Raj Kochar at the Asian Day Centre in Easton. Mrs Kochar talks about how she pursued a teaching career both in Kenya and Bristol. She tells the story of her immigration - how her parents moved from the Punjab to Kenya and how she herself moved to Bristol in the early1970s with her husband and young family.
Mrs Raj Kochar pursued a teaching career both in Kenya and Bristol. As part of the Desh project, Mrs Kochar and her friend Sodesh were interviewed by Maherush Khan about their lives in Bristol after moving from the Punjab and Kenya in the 1960s and 1970s. They discuss their favourite Indian music, films and dance, and how their children's upbringings differed from their own.
Maherush Khan [MK]: For the Desh Project we visited the Asian Day Centre in Eastern, in Bristol. Before this we were trained to do interviews and capture their stories in [inaudible 00:00:22]. This was a great experience for me hearing stories so different from my own.
MK: Don’t you have to get something soft?
MK: Maybe, let me see if I can find.
MK: [Inaudible 00:00:35].
Raj Kochar [RK]: My name is Raj Kochar, and my parents had come from Punjab, and settled in Kenya, I stayed there till 1972, I had most of my education in Kenya at first, because it was a British colony, Princess Elizabeth visited Kenya in 1952, before she became Queen. And we all lined up to welcome her, and then later on they had garden party and I went there as a guide. At first I went to Makerere [?] College in Kampala, Uganda, which was affiliated with the London University, so we had London University degree and all that. I was teaching there in Kenya as well, and we were quite happy there, you know.
MK: And how old were you when you moved here?
RK: Oh don’t ask me age, I won’t remember [both laugh], I was thirty plus yeah.
MK: Oh, so you had your childhood in Kenya?
RK: All of it in Kenya, most of the – and very exciting period in Kenya because it was the time when people were fighting for their independence and all that and it used to go to parliament, to the debates and things like that. You know, in my childhood we – most of the time we did have bit of fear, because Mau Mau activities were there, and we were not allowed to go out late in the evening, in Nairobi, you know, we had many cinemas, where they would show Indian films and so on. So we always used to go, but one particular thing was drive in, and they used to have films in the evening, so we all used to make it enjoyable, by making it like picnic and also going for the film. My father had a business about fifty miles away from Nairobi, [inaudible 00:02:40] and things like that, during holidays we would go in the truck, you know, lorry, sit at the back and all the way sing [inaudible 00:02:50] other songs, and all that [both laugh]. Which was – used to be great fun, because after independence, 1963, Kenya government decided to use Swahili, as franca lingua for teaching in schools and things like that. And you know when you have young children you have to think of their future, so that was the main reason for us to move to UK. When we came to UK it was a bit of shock, we came in May when it was beautiful, long days and what not, and I was expecting my third child at that time. She was nineteen days old when we moved to Bristol, because my husband had a job in Bristol, and house was there, but we had to do everything A to Z, so you can imagine how tough it was having three young children, my youngest daughter was about two and a half years old. Then I found a childminder and started teaching again. First of all it was all girls school, and the headteacher and my head of department they had both travelled quite a bit, and in fact head of department she knew quite a bit about Africa. So, you know, during my interview when I mentioned those things they could see from where I was coming, and my concern was a bit that, you know, my pronunciation, some people may not understand, because it was all white school. So I just said that, you know, I feel very comfortable with everything else, but this is my concern. So the headteacher she said, “Oh, you will be surprised when you go to the staff room, you will hear some fifteen, sixteen different accents, and yours is not bad at all, don’t worry about that.” Here you know at first some of the people they didn’t like immigrants coming in, yeah, and that was especially true of elderly ladies and things like that. To be fair to people, when they see – talk to you, can understand a few issues, they accept you, and they do become friends as well and I’ve got some very good friends as well here. Children, you know, they liked it here, they liked to get involved in various sports, and education as well. And they were – of course they may be incidents in school with them, but unfortunately or fortunately they didn’t mention those to us [laughs]. But things have moved a long way now, and I have taken a lot of part in that, you know, to bring about those things.
Mrs Raj Kochar pursued a teaching career both in Kenya and Bristol. As part of the Desh project, Mrs Kochar and her friend Sodesh were interviewed by Maherush Khan about their lives in Bristol after moving from the Punjab and Kenya in the 1960s and 1970s. They discuss their favourite Indian music, films and dance, and how their children's upbringings differed from their own.
Maherush Khan [MK]: For the Desh Project we visited the Asian Day Centre in Eastern, in Bristol. Before this we were trained to do interviews and capture their stories in [inaudible 00:00:22]. This was a great experience for me hearing stories so different from my own.
MK: Don’t you have to get something soft?
MK: Maybe, let me see if I can find.
MK: [Inaudible 00:00:35].
Raj Kochar [RK]: My name is Raj Kochar, and my parents had come from Punjab, and settled in Kenya, I stayed there till 1972, I had most of my education in Kenya at first, because it was a British colony, Princess Elizabeth visited Kenya in 1952, before she became Queen. And we all lined up to welcome her, and then later on they had garden party and I went there as a guide. At first I went to Makerere [?] College in Kampala, Uganda, which was affiliated with the London University, so we had London University degree and all that. I was teaching there in Kenya as well, and we were quite happy there, you know.
MK: And how old were you when you moved here?
RK: Oh don’t ask me age, I won’t remember [both laugh], I was thirty plus yeah.
MK: Oh, so you had your childhood in Kenya?
RK: All of it in Kenya, most of the – and very exciting period in Kenya because it was the time when people were fighting for their independence and all that and it used to go to parliament, to the debates and things like that. You know, in my childhood we – most of the time we did have bit of fear, because Mau Mau activities were there, and we were not allowed to go out late in the evening, in Nairobi, you know, we had many cinemas, where they would show Indian films and so on. So we always used to go, but one particular thing was drive in, and they used to have films in the evening, so we all used to make it enjoyable, by making it like picnic and also going for the film. My father had a business about fifty miles away from Nairobi, [inaudible 00:02:40] and things like that, during holidays we would go in the truck, you know, lorry, sit at the back and all the way sing [inaudible 00:02:50] other songs, and all that [both laugh]. Which was – used to be great fun, because after independence, 1963, Kenya government decided to use Swahili, as franca lingua for teaching in schools and things like that. And you know when you have young children you have to think of their future, so that was the main reason for us to move to UK. When we came to UK it was a bit of shock, we came in May when it was beautiful, long days and what not, and I was expecting my third child at that time. She was nineteen days old when we moved to Bristol, because my husband had a job in Bristol, and house was there, but we had to do everything A to Z, so you can imagine how tough it was having three young children, my youngest daughter was about two and a half years old. Then I found a childminder and started teaching again. First of all it was all girls school, and the headteacher and my head of department they had both travelled quite a bit, and in fact head of department she knew quite a bit about Africa. So, you know, during my interview when I mentioned those things they could see from where I was coming, and my concern was a bit that, you know, my pronunciation, some people may not understand, because it was all white school. So I just said that, you know, I feel very comfortable with everything else, but this is my concern. So the headteacher she said, “Oh, you will be surprised when you go to the staff room, you will hear some fifteen, sixteen different accents, and yours is not bad at all, don’t worry about that.” Here you know at first some of the people they didn’t like immigrants coming in, yeah, and that was especially true of elderly ladies and things like that. To be fair to people, when they see – talk to you, can understand a few issues, they accept you, and they do become friends as well and I’ve got some very good friends as well here. Children, you know, they liked it here, they liked to get involved in various sports, and education as well. And they were – of course they may be incidents in school with them, but unfortunately or fortunately they didn’t mention those to us [laughs]. But things have moved a long way now, and I have taken a lot of part in that, you know, to bring about those things.