Letter from Nanyuki......Snapshot of my family

Where shall I begin my story? having had a good look at stamped pages of my 5 passports, I thought of using my travel experiences as the foundation for my story.

 After 2 days of mulling over the idea of my story,  I decided to start it with the good old cliché "every picture tells a story", lucky me  I have 7000 photos on my computer to tell many. There is another cliché I have added to my story, that is  ' life is a journey'. My journey through travel from 1949 onwards will  try and  connect my life with the photos I have selected for my story. I start off with a small write up which I posted off to the national newspaper but it failed to  get noticed for printing. I therefore take this opportunity to share my thoughts about the photo above and start my story on this travelblog of mine..... So here I go:

" Though I do not appear in the photo above,  for me, it has been a constant reminder of the time gone-by captured in one photo shoot of my family, times of hopes and dreams maybe?  The photo was taken in a professional studio, with the grand English home setting as a back drop, in a small town called Nanyuki, Kenya. I believe the photo was taken in 1949, a year before my birth.

The photo is of my extended family: my 3 brothers, my 2 cousins. My mother, the head of the extended family is holding my nervous looking sister, perhaps she is camera shy? From time to time the photo comes out for a good scrutiny, giggling  over the boys shoes and socks, are they wearing designer's outfit made by my mother? My eldest brother is the one sitting on the grand  chair, with a smile, proudly playing the role of a Big Brother. My youngest brother, standing on the far left is the only one who has his hands in his pockets, has a naughty look too; he did not change much as he grew older!! On the far right is my sweet looking middle brother with plaited hair, a bit girlie, which he kept under his turban as he grew up as a devote Sikh.

The Mau Mau uprising of the sixties in Kenya meant that we all had to leave behind our birth place and our dreams and move to England with our small belongings. The city of Coventry became our home and we did our best to rebuild our lives and for fill our very own individual dreams. The photograph above is now part of history and only to be handed down for memories, amusement and nostalgia maybe?