I came here from India in 1967 and since then I am living in Leeds. I must be around 19 or 20 years old when my association with the temple, the Hindu temple in Leeds, began. Initially, I became part of the committee, then became a trustee, then a board member, and I occupy this position even today.

I was the one who managed the cooking and decoration in the temple for functions as well as when the kathākār came. I had a team of women who assisted me in these chores. I do this even today. I pray to Lord Radha Krishna that regardless of where I am, bestow me with health and give me a chance to present myself in my temple. This is all I wish for.

My two sons were very young at the time. I struggled and got by but never begged from anyone. Even when I got half a penny, I left my job of two years to earn that half penny. I used to get paid half a penny per hour. I calculated that at this rate, I would earn x amount of pennies in 7 hours, and x amount of money in a month, and x amount in a year. I used to budget my expenses accordingly.

I have never missed on charity in my temple. I especially do that during the Navratri festival. For the ārtī ritual, I used to be the first in line. I had gotten a chance to participate in the ārtī competition as well as the garba programme. We sing the garba during Navratri and we enjoy very much. Secondly, I have this nature of going through with something that I have decided to accomplish. So, initially, I started a school with four children, two of mine and two of my sister.

I had a sense of self-pride that my children must know my language. By my children, I mean all my students. So, I commenced my project with four students and one class. Then the school expanded to two classes, then three and then four with a total of 84 students. We had four classes. I was very proud. On Mondays, I used to teach classical music. On Wednesdays, I taught the tabla. My Gujarati school used to run on Fridays. Once I deliberately wrote an incorrect word on the board. Then I asked all students to read what I had written to check if they thought it was correct or incorrect. One particular student read the word and said, “Induben, you’re a teacher but you don’t know anything!” So, I asked him what error did he identify in the word. He said, “If you’ve written mandir with the letter ‘n’, why have you placed the dot on the top?” I said, “Congratulations, you have passed!”

The student accused me of being a liar, asked me why did I write the word incorrectly, and then slapped me. He slapped me in a manner that my glasses broke and I suffered a bruise here. Despite that, I congratulated him and said that I had no hard feelings towards him because he slapped me. Everyone was laughing and saying that Induben got slapped! I said, no, he has passed with flying colours!