Red Velvet Poochi: Belonging, Abandonment, Reunion (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781836156888)

What does it feel like to be uprooted, transferred and left on alien soil?

A little known experience of British children at an interesting time in colonial and post-colonial history (1944 to 1962) is communicated in this memoir through the words and perceptions of a small girl growing into a teenager, with pain and humour. Perceived as white, but feeling 'brown on the inside', she is exploring the question: Where do I belong? The Red Velvet Poochi, a very small creature, is for her a symbol of vulnerability.

Threads of vulnerability, culture shock, abandonment, profound connections to the natural environment, and unexpected human kindness interweave a spiritual exploration as a child tries to make sense of her world, her identity, familial relationships, British adult attitudes and religious teaching. Tarie's early childhood experiences are of a colourful Indian community, one particular loving, child-affirming woman, and an exciting, wild, tropical mountain jungle, in bright sunshine or pounding monsoon rain. Through changing environments, including sad boarding school experiences in India and Wales, she clings to memories, precious childhood items and the increasingly fragmenting Tamil language. A vivid imagination sustains her firstly in southern India; and then, being incomprehensibly labelled as a 'missionaries' child', in Wales and England, an unattainable three-week journey away from loved ones and the place she calls home. Her parents' furloughs to Britain are scheduled for only every five years.

Her question about belonging is answered when, years later, she is reunited with her childhood home and wounds are healed. Other questions remain.