We are all jugglers

Faisal ir

Faisal Mir

All of us are jugglers. We straddle different identities and worlds every day.

My parents were born and bred in Pakistan and moved over to England in the 1970s. I was born and bred in North London, am a second-generation Pakistani, speak broken Urdu as well as I speak broken French, am Muslim, am a qualified accountant (for my sins), studied History at Cambridge University, work as an Assistant Director here in HCC, have lived in Hertfordshire for the last 5 years, am married, have an increasingly rambunctious litter of 3 children (aged 8, 4 and 2) and support Manchester United.

The less said about the last point the better. On the earlier points:

  • I’m very grateful for the efforts and support that my parents gave me, uprooting themselves – without any family alongside them – to get me and my brother a good education;
  • I’m very privileged, having experienced only a few isolated incidents of racism throughout my life to date. As a society I think we have moved forward a great deal on anti-racism over recent decades – although much work still needs to be done;
  • Aspiration matters – I used to teach English at a voluntary Saturday school in West London, and briefly set up a similar venture in my time living in Enfield. The biggest lesson I learnt from those years is that having high ambitions is critical to moving forward in – or from – any walk of life.

Enjoy your juggling and aim high.

This page was added on 28/07/2021.

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