African safari

African safari

NaturallyAfrica is an independent tour operator specialising in tailor-made travel and safaris to southern Africa. We create personalised travel experiences to suit your interests and requirements and that capture the spirit and beauty of this enchanting continent. NaturallyAfrica also organises unique wildlife and ecology trips and voluntary conservation and research opportunities. It is our wish that everyone who experiences Africa with us will be left with unforgettable memories and tales of wonder, while Africa is left with no trace of our being there. We achieve this with your help by ensuring that our actions are responsible and by doing what we can to contribute to the conservation of the places that we visit. African safari The other very special memory African safari for me was going with my brothers on a Saturday African safari morning to the Shan Cinema on Ngara Road, clutching African safari a shilling each in our hands to watch a Dara Singh African safari movie. Dara Singh was a wrestler-turned-actor, the African safari all-conquering hero who always triumphed over evil. African safari You can imagine the excitement in our home when many African safari years later in England, Dara Singh made an appearance African safari on ITVs World of Sport wrestling that was so popular African safari on Saturday afternoons in the seventies. Occasionally wed get a chance to watch an African safari English movie at the cinema ? I recall the war movie African safari Tora Tora Tora making a big impact, and I saw it African safari again on telly just the other day. However, for some African safari reason, as kids it was The Man From U.N.C.L.E. movies African safari that got us really excited, though I remember many of African safari us looking away from the screen when the smooching African safari came on; its sounds funny now but I suppose that African safari was the way we were brought up. African safari The other popular activity we got up to was re-enacting African safari the East African Safari Rally with our African safari matchbox toy cars ? wed tie a cotton thread to the front African safari wheels and pulled them along. If the car turned over, African safari or you had to touch the car for any reason, youd lose African safari points. Some of the races would be epics, even going African safari past large gutters to emulate the Rift Valley where African safari the real thing would go through. Talking of the real thing, we would all go to African safari Nairobis Uhuru Park from where the Kenya leg of the African safari annual Safari Rally would start. We did not know African safari most of the drivers, but when the Datsuns of local heroes African safari Joginder Singh and Shekhar Mehta mounted the ramp, African safari we would almost explode with excitement. All the above recollections may give the African safari impression that it was all play and no work for us. African safari Far from it. We all had tuition at home to supplement our African safari school studies. And the teachers at our school, African safari City Primary School, were good but also very strict. Some African safari of them dished out the type of punishment which might African safari by todays standards be regarded as extreme corporal African safari punishment. Being made to bend over for the whole African safari lesson with a board duster balanced on the back was African safari a favourite among many teachers, heaven help you African safari should the duster fall off. The one I hated most was African safari one where a pencil was threaded through alternate African safari fingers, and then the teacher would hit the knuckle part of the hand with a ruler-edge with all her might. I only had this African safari sickening punishment once, but I still wince when I African safari think of it, the pain probably more exaggerated in my mind because it was the boy sitting in front of me who kept turning African safari round to chatter to me that had got me into African safari trouble. If I had gone home and told my parents about African safari this, I would probably have got another smack. Dont African safari get me wrong, Im not complaining about reasonable African safari punishment at school or in the home. To me it African safari was a perfect example of just how determined our African safari parents were back then to ensure we had a good African safari education and hence a better start in life. A philosophy African safari borne out even today in British schools where the African safari performance of children from East African African safari families is second only to children from Chinese families. African safari Compared to kids today, we grew up with far African safari more respect for our teachers and society as a whole. African safari When I started schooling in England, I was shocked African safari at the lack of respect kids here showed teachers ? African safari it was hard to understand why the kids called Mr African safari Fishburn ?fishface? behind his back. When the time came to leave Kenya African safari for the UK, a lot of my friends came to say goodbye. African safari They spoke of how lucky I was to be going to a African safari country wed all dreamt about. I would have African safari certainly shared that view had the gloss not been taken African safari off by the sad loss of our dad. Stepping off the plane at African safari Heathrow, I distinctly remember the cold wind African safari hitting my face and blowing through my hair. That was African safari 33 years ago. Today, all four of us brothers African safari are happily married with kids. My mum is still with us, African safari and I have a wonderful wife and two terrific kids. African safari England has given me and my family many wonderful African safari opportunities, and Im proud to call this place my African safari home. As I look back at where we were three decades African safari ago to where we are now, I cant help thinking about African safari what my friends had said to me as they came to say African safari goodbye when we emigrated. We indeed were very African safari lucky to have had the opportunity to start a new life African safari in England. That said, I still look back at the African safari place of my birth, Kenya with fond memories ? a African safari country which will always have a very special place in my heart. As Senior Sports Reporter African safari for the Asian African safari Network, I enjoy an exciting life at the African safari BBC. But I also look back fondly on an equally African safari colourful childhood. The East African Safari, Captain African safari Scarlett, matchbox cars, The Man From U.N.C.L.E - African safari are just some of the more enduring African safari memories of growing up in Nairobi, African safari Kenya. I was a sixties African safari child, the youngest of four children. My family immigrated to African safari England in the early 70s to begin what should have African safari been an exciting new life in a place which the thriving Indian African safari community in East Africa had seen as utopia. I say should have been because African safari this period in our lives was blotted by a tragedy. Just African safari weeks before we were to emigrate, my father reluctantly African safari accompanied some friends on a weekend business trip African safari to a town called Thika. On the way back, thir car was African safari involved in an accident. While the other two sustained African safari only minor injuries, my dad was killed on the spot. He African safari was just 42. Being so young, I have few memories of my African safari dad, but I remember him as a tall, strong, handsome African safari man who was stern but gentle with us. Like many African safari Gujaratis who had been lured to East Africa during the African safari days when most of Africa was colonised by the African safari British, he had always sought to provide the best African safari for his family. He was an Accountant by trade, African safari but things were tough. He was the sole bread African safari winner in the house - my mum was a housewife and it African safari was not the done thing for women to go to work - African safari and there were no such things as free schooling, the African safari NHS or Social Services, everything had to be African safari paid for. We lived in one large rented African safari room, it was our living room, our bedroom, our playroom, African safari in fact you name it - and there was a tiny adjacent African safari kitchen and a shared bathroom. But despite this I African safari remember being happy, we may not have had the mod African safari cons and luxuries we take so much for granted African safari nowadays, but we were happy as a family unit. The African safari Indian community in Kenya had established itself African safari as a thriving community, with cinemas, restaurants, shops, African safari schools and temples providing us with most of our needs. One fond memory was huddling around African safari a tiny black and white TV set which my dad had African safari rented specially to watch Apollo 11 landing on the moon. African safari But the rest of the times, we only got a chance to African safari watch TV programmes if we managed to sneak African safari in to the homes of our more well-off friends, until we African safari were booted out by their parents returning home from African safari work. This is why when I did get a chance to see some African safari TV, programmes like Captain Scarlett and The African safari Flintstones stuck in my mind as vivid memories. Its African safari ironic that my eight-year old son watches and enjoys African safari these very programmes on TV today ! Most of the times wed play cricket or African safari gully danda - an old Asian game played with two wooden African safari sticks, the longer stick used to flick up and hit the African safari smaller stick - in the streets