My mum came to Australia when she was four, back in 1955 so she spoke like an Australian with the pure aussie accent, but if someone was to see her walking down the street they would automatically assume she did not know a word of English because she always wore the Pakistani traditional dress-the shalwar kamiz ever since I could remember, but her accent was as if she had walked straight out of the outback, even my accent was not as Australian as her accent was, I suppose it was because my grandparents settled in the country side in a small town called Coonable. My mum would sit and tell us all, stories of all the different animals they had and how they owned a small corner shop where mum would make sandwiches.
Ok Now here is the funny part, i don't know what my grandfather was thinking at the time, but he changed all his kids names, well not changed but gave them an extra Aussie name to aussify them. My mum was given the name Phylis, Yes Phylis- i call her that at times, mainly when i can't find something because she really didn't enjoy that name growing up with it in all her school years. My Uncles, were Bruce, Joe and i'm not sure of the third uncles name i'm pretty sure it was Wayne, i don't remember it because we grew up calling them all by their Pakistani name. My aunties were named Cynthia and Barbera. My Aunty Barbie never got a pakistani name, it just stuck and my other aunty eventually got a pakistani name when she got married. But they are both still called Aunty Barbie and Aunty Cynthia!
Yes some of you may be thinking, what? how can a Pakistani man straight from the chak (village) give his children these aussie names- didn't he fear his children becoming "too aussie" like all the other pakistani men settled in Australia? Don't get me wrong, he was the strictest man ever! as to how strict he was? well, when my mum was young she played basketball, she was actually captain of her highschool basketball team, they had a game away from home, so all the kids were getting on the school bus to be driven over to the courts, but no, not my mum she was in a car behind the bus with my grandfather driving her there! when my mum told me this, I didn't know whether to feel sorry for my mum or to laugh at my nana (grandfather). But my mother was everything to my parents, they believed she was the Dr, lawyer, interpreter, and well everything you can possibly be. My grandparents didn't no a word of english, so where ever they went my mum went to translate everything. When my grandparents came to learn some basic words of english to get them by, my grandmother went to the Dr for some reason, and was prescribed a medicine, but oh no my grandmother couldn't take the medicine, she actually told the Dr to call her daughter (my mum) and ask if the medicine was right for her and she was being prescribed the right medicine. So yes the Dr to put my grandmother at ease called my mother and told her, Mrs Khan your mother seems to believe i can't prescribe her anything without your permission. All i can say again is my grandmother thought the world of my mum.
Sam aS i am
