Growing up in the central Indian state of Maharashtra, Greeshma was multi-lingual by six, fluent in four languages.
Living in India until she was 32, Greeshma became the first female internationally educated nurse to come to the Trust back in 2019, and she’s proudly celebrating her culture this South Asian Heritage Month.
Greeshma says:
“I’m proud of my Indian heritage, and now I’m here, I have built a life, I visit Temple every week in Preston, and you know it’s true, in India I grew up learning four languages.
"Each Indian state has its own language. So, my parents are both from Kerala in South India, so my mother tongue is that regional language, Malayalam. However, I learnt at school the regional language of where I grew up in Maharashtra, which is called Marathi. Then there’s the Indian national language, Hindi, and of course English. So, at school, lessons included English, Hindi and the regional Marathi.”
Greeshma was keen to celebrate the joy that Indian music and dancing brings to the world and the global influence it has alongside Bollywood.
“Bollywood, the music, the dancing. It put India on the world stage, and everyone can enjoy that.”
Greeshma grew up in a household in Maharashtra, with a grandmother with schizophrenia between the ages of 10 and 16 and was naturally curious about the symptoms she witnessed. She didn’t know it at the time, but it was this lived experience that during her time as a young nurse in New Delhi, caused the urge to grow in her to do a post graduate degree in Mental Health Nursing.
She says:
“It’s a personal story, but I don’t mind sharing. There’s a stigma around mental health in India. It’s not spoken about, and you know, nursing as a profession is not seen as a big deal in India. It’s either you’re an engineer or a doctor.
“I watched my grandma and would see her responding to unseen stimuli, she would hallucinate a lot and there was an extent of self-harm. As a child, I was very inquisitive about what she was doing. I wanted to know why. She was never aggressive to us, just to herself, responding to the voices she could hear. That inspired me down my career path, because I understand.”
After achieving her post graduate qualification in Chhattisgarh, Greeshma worked as a mental health nurse in India for a couple of years, but she felt the pull of wanting to work where nursing was valued.
Greeshma laughs as she explains:
“One of the major reasons I chose the UK was my brother who moved here 20 years ago. We weren’t together much growing up, so I wanted to be near him. I really didn’t know about the difference between Devon and Preston then!
“I’d never travelled out of India, and I was one of the first international nurses to arrive at the Trust. There was just me and one other nurse, Justin, we arrived in November 2019. I remember getting off the plane in Manchester, I didn’t know I’d need a quid for the trolley! ‘I was like, where the heck am I! Why did I come here?! It was a culture shock!
“I worked on a dementia ward at the Harbour. I then moved to another ward and now I’m progressing as a band seven trainee advanced clinical practitioner and am encouraged to do so.
“When I arrived, my two daughters were going to join me, but then COVID hit, I was used to a noisy house, with lots going on, someone clattering kitchen utensils, all sorts. I’d only been here for a couple of months and in lockdown I was on my own and the four walls of my studio apartment, my girls with my parents in India. It was a tricky time.”
It was a whole 18 months until her daughters could join her.
Greeshma says:
“I’m so proud of my heritage, I lived in India until I was 32, and now I love life in Lancashire, it’s so peaceful. We go to temple, and I have some Indian friends, but with all my languages, I’d like to keep my heritage alive. My eldest can speak Hindi with a lovely English accent, but my youngest only speaks English and has spent most of her life in Preston.
“I see my brother every six months which is great, I go down to Devon, or he comes up here. When international nurses join the Harbour, I welcome them and go out of my way to deliver a personal pastoral service!
“I’m so proud to work for such an inclusive Trust that allows me to celebrate my heritage, and now there is a lot more internationally educated mental health nurses than Justin and I and I worked closely with recruitment after I started, and new internationally educated starters are now given a wonderful induction.
“When I see my parents who have visited many times, we celebrate Onam, the festival of harvest in Kerala, owing to their heritage in southern India. I’m proud of my homeland and celebrate it this South Asian Heritage Month, but I’m loving life in Lancashire and doing a job I love.”
Our first female international nurse blazing a trail for all our international nurses!
