"I grew up twice. The first time in India, where I was born, and the second time in Ireland. One nation birthed me, the other swaddled my very soul. I was 24 years old when I arrived in Ireland in 1986, one of a handful of aliens in Sligo town. The only Irish people I had known until then were nuns, formidable women all, who ran many convent schools in India."
"Ireland in the 1980s shocked me in more ways than one. Yes, the 40 shades of green, the 21 types of rain, the 32 words for field and the 100,000 welcomes they were all quite real. But also palpable was a society still stifled by religion. Married people had no right to divorce and there was limited access to contraception if you were unmarried. Abortion wasn't just illegal, it was banned by the constitution."
The narrator experienced two formative cultures, born and educated in India then relocating to Ireland at age 24 in 1986. Early contact with Irish nuns contrasted with later immersion in Sligo town. Ireland's landscape and hospitality coexisted with strong religious constraints: no divorce rights for married people, restricted contraception for unmarried women, and a constitutional ban on abortion. The 1980s recession caused business closures and widespread emigration, especially of young men. Local curiosity about migrants was common and largely well-intentioned, while overt racism was rare and mostly practiced by thoughtless individuals.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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