Ladyspeak: Tripta Grewal is a social activist and writer based in London.

ENGLISH is a fascinating language and thanks to the dedicated nuns in my convent school my interest in the language was encouraged beyond the syllabus. By the age of ten writing had become more of a hobby and my English teachers evaluated not only my schoolwork but also my extra-curricular writing assignments. The same pattern continued in college too where my lecturers would always receive more than one writing assignment on their desk before the deadline. That was a decided disadvantage, as my classmates would sweet-talk me into doing theirs too!

Married right after graduation to a young businessman from London and a mother of two by 23, my family thought that my life was made. However, something was missing. It hit me literally one day, between my son's soccer practise and my daughter's singing lessons that I was ignoring what came to me naturally - writing. In the interim years I had not made any real efforts to put pen to a paper though I had maintained a journal of sorts of my experiences from life in small town Punjab to London.

I saw various forms of discrimination around me directed towards people of Asian origin. From verbal abuse to physical violence, in extreme cases. I realised that the ethnic minority, especially the Asians needed a voice of their own and decided to contribute in the only way I knew how.

Apart from giving counselling sessions as part of a support group, I also started writing short articles about the state of the Asian community and its contribution . The local newspaper very reluctantly accepted my first piece. It took me a while to get published on the front page moving out from being buried in the inside pages. In the writing fraternity I was known as the brown lady who wore a funny dress, with reference to my salwar- kurta!

Most of my writing included the business and social aspects of adopting another country as your homeland. Though things didn't change overnight, the situation has become favourable for young Asians over the years to make a career and slowly to gain political representation in the local and national law making bodies.

Now I divide my time between writing and giving lectures on Asian Studies. The recent flare up of violence before the elections aimed at the Asian community, has however reminded me that this fragile coexistence depends greatly on trust and can break under the misguided notions of racial intolerance.

MALINI SURYANARAYANAN