Thom's Story: What I won’t miss leaving behind in UK

Now, that we are more or less sure about our decision to return to India and are getting more and more comfortable with it as time passes its time to think about what we wont be missing when we leave the UK.

Racism is undoubtedly on top of that list. Several times people have asked us in the course of casual conversations if we have experienced racism in the UK. Its a difficult question to answer, because the effects of racism isn’t always in your face. It isn’t always direct and it’s easy to ignore as most victims do so and it is easier to pretend that a racist incident is something else, a drunk person not knowing how to hold down his alcohol, a kid who doesn’t realise what he speaks, or as someone just venting his daily frustration. How many times have I heard a racist comment and acted as if it hadn’t been spoken. How many times have I walked away from a situation that I would have reacted to had I been in my own country. How many times have I seen something happen and not reacted because I am not a primary citizen in this country… would you call that racism? Whatever you would call it, a person in a foreign country is always not in a confident frame of mind. It curtails his freedom and his rights directly or indirectly. That is why I would love to be back in India as a primary citizen where I need not fear for my safety or the safety of my family because of the colour of our skin.

Mind you, it is far more likely that a person is insulated from the effects of racism when in an upmarket environment where the security that accompanies financial wealth may bring with it a more civilised society or better disguised xenophobia. It is also a fair observation that educated people are more unlikely to indulge in racism and a university is a very safe environment. However it is when a person ventures out to encounter the everyday life by day or night on the streets of UK that these ugly issues raise their head (There's always exceptions as revealed by the latest leak on high profile list of members of the BNP which includes professors and doctors!).

So some of you might wonder why I am speaking out on this issue now. I happened to catch a preview of a recent BBC panorama undercover investigation into racism. This documentary was filmed on the streets of Bristol hardly 10 minutes walk away from where we currently live. Watch the embedded preview video below. Its shocking but its real, this is what happens at its worst, I`m glad we will be heading away from all this shortly!