It's okay to like where you live...

I wrote a guest blog post for a local website on why I love where we live in London. Check it out:

Falling In Love With Tooting: A Guest Blog by Heidi Sand-Hart.

I first fell in love with Tooting whilst sitting in Sarashwathy Bavans, enjoying a masala dosa that transported me back to my childhood.

I grew up in South India for five years, surrounded by Tamilians – both Sri Lankan and Indian. The memories conjured up over that dosa made me feel at home and homesick at the same time. Back then my husband and I lived in “white, safe” Southfields and only ventured down Garratt Lane when I needed an “India fix”. More than once we breathed a sigh of relief at leaving the madness of the Broadway which we viewed as quite chaotic at the time.
Merely two years later we were excited Tooting homeowners, primarily due to how much more bang we got for our buck in Toots!


Continue reading here !!

Indiahhhhh....

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY 

INDIA!! 

Empire

It occurred to me recently, whilst watching BBC's "Empire", that most of the countries I've lived in have a strong British influence. Whether colonised as India was, or a member of the commonwealth, the British influence is strong and recognisable. India. Canada. New Zealand.

But it is the entanglement of Indian and British culture that is of most interest to me. I often get asked which country feels like home and although I can never find the elements of my upbringing in just one place, I usually answer "England". In truth, it is both India and England that have always had the strongest semblance of "home" and since both cultures are laced with tangible traces of the other, it makes sense to my soul. I grew up in England wearing Punjabi suits and eating curry, surrounded by Indians...and lived in India surrounded by the remnants of British rule, attending a British boarding school, having afternoon tea and living in cottages built by the British. 





Although my parents' Scandinavian roots have been ever present in my upbringing, it is the combination of British and Indian which has the strongest connection to the fabric of my existence. They go hand in hand for me. It is while devouring a dosa in South London or riding the extensive Indian railway put in place by the British that I feel most complete.

Horse & Rider

A film that I'm really looking forward to...filmed partly in my hometown of Ooty, India. You can pre-order the film at: http://freedomfirm.storenvy.com/products/179432-horse-rider-a-journey-towards-freedom

Please support their worthy cause to "free the daughters of India"...

India article

Brilliant article on India and a girl's cross-cultural journey back "home"...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-radio-and-tv-15520933