Vidya Lakshmi

“I have not done anything wrong, so should I let him in?” Vidya wondered. But we are getting ahead of the story.

Trichy-born AG Subramanian, a chemistry graduate from Chennai’s Loyola College, worked at Gordon Woodroffe for many years before Kenya beckoned with an employment opportunity.

When the Subramanians left India with their three kids in the 1980s, little did they know they were about to throw six-year-old Vidya into a world of chaos.

“When I ponder about my parents’ move, I always wonder, ‘What were you guys thinking, moving to Africa with kids and a belief that things will eventually work out?’ Any element of risk-taking within me, I think, comes from my father because my mother is a relaxed soul.” Her tiny mind tried to manage the magnitude of change.

Thika, an industrial town in south-central Kenya, specialized in textile production. Forty kilometers away from the capital city, Nairobi, this suburban town employed Subramanian at a leather company.

Vidya studied at Thika Memorial, a local school, as opposed to the international ones available now. This meant very few Indians in the educational institution, which forced her to learn about race and skin color at a young age.

“On my first day of school, everything scared me, and yet made me curious. I ran away from school when I was in Grade 2. Thankfully, an Indian woman, our school-staff, who saw me strolling the streets, was able to get me back to my parents safely.

“I remember other children being curious about my skin color and race since I was one of the very few non-black students. They pulled my hair -because it was long and styled differently from their own hairstyles. They pinched me to see how my skin color changed and made fun of how I spoke a different language. Normal things that children would do when they are curious about a person of a different culture.”

Vidya would have never thought that this would lay the foundation for her later-day job as the head of Human Resources for Goldman Sachs, Bengaluru.

Given that she could not speak the local language, it was hard to make friends.

“I started learning and speaking Swahili to interact locally, although I do not remember much of the language now.” Incidentally, Vidya went on to learn to speak Tamil, English, Hindi, Swahili, French, and German.

The slow pace of suburban Kenyan life meant that Vidya avoided the hustle and bustle of a Chennai life.

“There were lots of open spaces; we had big houses. We traveled quite a bit and had many mini-vacations in national parks, wildlife preserves, and lakes. We also had a strong sense of the Indian community with Gujaratis making up for the majority. I learned Hindi from them, along with the Garba dance.”