Karen Tweed - Panchpuran lyrics

If you'll listen, I'd like to tell you all about my life At barely sixteen, I left my homeland Crossed the seas for Dover's chalky cliffs Strathnaver docked in cascading rain With tearful eyes, my mind went back to India National Railways employed my father Mother ran the house The job moved bases almost yearly She found friends, and an ayah for the babe I lived nine months of the year at school My second family, that's how it was in India We were known as Anglo-Indians European Asian blood Dark or light skinned, and our language A panchpuran of Hindi / English words Independence forced us all to leave Farewell to loved ones left behind in India In New Brighton we lodged with family Sleeping in one room Mum had never boiled a kettle Never cleaned a floor or cooked our food It was months before dad found a job Experience counts for nothing from India I hated England and missed Darjeeling I cried every day My little sister lost all her Hindi She became our family's foreign child And the rations here were strict and small I pined for burfi and the taste of India Well fifty years how fast they travel Yet our culture remains Friends from home live here in London We meet often, call them every day But the young ones they are English now Shaped by your green hills and motorways Still we share with them our roots in India