Member-only story
Adventurous Parents
Most data suggests that overall, the present is a nicer, safer, more prosperous place than the past. A long, long time ago, life was harsh. Imagine surgery with no anaesthesia. Imagine being ill before antibiotics. Imagine being a woman in Britain when being called a witch could ruin your life, which wasn’t even that long ago. A long time ago, life sucked, but not so long ago, it seems like it was a lot more exciting.
I’m glad I don’t live in the 1800s. I was born at the end of the 1970s. What I’ve noticed though, is that the more I learn about my parents, and others of an earlier generation, the more boring my life seems in comparison to theirs.
My father came to England from Pakistan in his twenties. He worked in factories, and a bakery, before working as a carpenter. He rode a motorcycle. He put up with racism that I can’t imagine, even as racism works it’s way into the UK mainstream under the stewardship of a Conservative government. Along with my mother and my eldest sibling, he lived in a single room, in a shared accommodation. That was before going on to buy two houses for cash. My parents took in newcomers from Pakistan before they found their own feet. They were brave pioneers in a way that I have never been.
When he was still a young man, my father drove from England to Pakistan. Sleeping in forests. Working his way through Europe and Russia with a…
