A pharmacist’s journey to Taranaki
Mrudula Choudary is South Indian but was raised in Northern Ireland – an accent that throws people, she says. The mother-of-two has lived in New Plymouth for the last 17 years.
Iwas born in South India, near Hyderabad in a rural village, and my parents were already settled in Northern Ireland in a place called Ballymena at that time.
So my three siblings were born before me, two in India and one in Ireland, but we kept going back to India because that was the way you got brought up, you know, by the whole family.
So I was born in India, but when I was one, we settled in Northern Ireland.
So I was raised there pretty much and hence the strong Northern Irish accent.
I loved growing up in Northern Ireland.
The Indian community there grew steadily during the 1980s, and we were a close-knit community.
We’d meet once a week or so in a temple in Belfast and were taken under a wing by a lovely Indian family who were my childhood friend and aunty and uncle.
We call them that because they’re very close to us.
I spent all my childhood there until I left for university in Aberdeen, Scotland, hence my Scottish twang.
I did four years there, and loved it again and met more Irish and Scottish people.
After the four years, my Dad had already started working in Leicester, in England, so I decided to take my internship just outside Leicester and stayed there for three years.
After three years of the rat race I thought gosh, this is grinding me down.
A lot of my friends have gone overseas and my sister, who is still here, had travelled to Sydney at that point.
She was living in Sydney for three years.
So I went to visit her for two
I loved growing up in Northern Ireland. The Indian community there grew steadily during the 1980s, and we were a close-knit community.
weeks, loved it, and when I went back it sort of gave me a different perspective.
Friends of mine said ‘‘look, we’re travelling around for three weeks after we finish our jobs – why don’t you come with us?’’ So I did.
We travelled all around Australia and then my sister was coming to Auckland, so I stayed with her after that travel.
She said to me why don’t you just stay and try to get a job – they’re looking out for pharmacists on the skill shortage list.
I looked at a couple of jobs, went over to the Bay of Plenty, but I thought no, that’s not me, and me and my sister had come to New Plymouth for new year and loved it.
I love being beside the sea, I’m not a city girl.
So I came here 17 years ago and have worked for Vivian Pharmacy ever since.
I mainly miss my family. I do miss Ireland, the feel of Ireland, but I don’t think I could settle back there.
Most of my family are split between Ireland and England and I do miss my mum. She usually comes every year, but she hasn’t been for 31⁄ years because of Covid.
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But she is coming back this year.
There’s some Irish food I miss. Luckily, the Indian food here is really good.
But the Irish traditional breads and stuff like that, that you can’t find here, like soda bread and potato bread. It just reminds me of my childhood.
I have two children. There are nearly 10 and 61⁄ 2, a boy and a girl. So we love it here.
Since we don’t have family here, the massive expat community here, they’re our family.
We’ve got a big Indian community, and we’ve got an Irish community, which I’m a big part of, and just friends from England.
We all had children at the same time, so we all help each other.
It’s the community feel here. It’s big enough and small enough, so you can walk down the street, and you say hello and people are very welcoming. I’ve never felt like I was being ignored and genuinely, people just get to know you, they want to know you.
I love the fact that it’s beside the sea, and we’ve got lovely mountains, we’ve got the best of both worlds.
There’s so much free to do here. I think our region is one of the best areas for children especially.