Aunty Giri is one of the Sweet - {Silver Sunday Story Writing Competition 2020}
I’m Anagha, 11 years old and I’m super excited to share the biography of Aunty Giri. I did this interview over the phone and she was almost over the moon to hear someone taking interest in her life. She is the sweet, kind and caring woman I have ever met; who is a close friend of our family. She has helped us many times selflessly.
Aunty Giri is 73 years old. My family met her when I was still in my mother’s tummy! My mum needed help from my grandma but she was in India. My Grandma had never travelled on the plane and wasn’t confident to travel on her own. Fortunately Aunty Giri was on a holiday there, so she helped my Grandma to come here safely and ever since has become close to our family.
Born in India, 1947 (The year India got Independence), in a large house with 5 bedrooms. She was very comfortable and happy there and enjoyed it. She was the youngest in her family and was quite spoilt by her 4 older brothers. Her name Girija means Goddess Parvathi (her qualities are almost the same) and she was named after her sister who had passed away a year before she was born.
As an Indian we call her aunty and Giri is for short, which was also her nickname as a child! As a young girl she did not have much entertainment like we have now and obviously there was no electronics, instead she and her friends would play games such as Chinese checkers and carrom board in front of her house (she is still really good at these games and almost always wins).
As a child her family were very religious Hindus and on holidays visited places like Tirupati where the Lord Venkateswara Temple is. Aunty Giri also as a child was surrounded with dogs though her favourite one was called Purdy (a black and white dog) that she had when she moved to England.
When she was little she always wanted to be a doctor but was not able to become one because she could not study the degree as her mum was ill at that time and she had to look after her. Fortunately she did marry a doctor and moved to England. When she turned 40 she started working as a surgery receptionist. She loved her job as it gave her opportunity to get out of the house, talk to people, and work on the computer.
When she retired, she travelled over 35 countries such as U.S, Canada, Kenya and Greece but her favourite was Japan, where she visited just before I was born. As a gift she brought a Japan reindeer puppet for me, which I still have today. After the years of travelling she is now happily living in a beautiful house with a large garden. She loves nature and frequently goes on walks in Virginia Waters. I’m so grateful to have her in my life.
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