A couple of weeks after I first arrived in London, I was invited to the launch of an exhibit at the Reading (pronounced "redding") Museum. The subject: Indian architecture in the local community. An interesting topic as England is an "old" country and it was once said the sun "could never set" on its own empire.
Reading is about an hour from London. We chose to travel there by overground train. Our journey started from Paddington Station, but we got off the train in Southall to meet a few people attending the event. Southall is a old Punjabi community in the west side of London. I quickly snapped a picture of the bilingual sign at the train station before we boarded the train to Reading. Once we got to Reading, we immediately went to the museum. In hindsight, I wish I arrived earlier and walked around the neighbourhood.
The gala at the museum opened my eyes to the influence India had on this community in the late 1800s. One of my discoveries was the Chattri Memorial in Brighton. It was built to honor Indians who fought in the war. This grabbed my attention because of the topic of my research paper for the British Studies Program - South Asians and Southeast Asians who fought in the British Army. I felt like my experiences during this trip were connecting.
I learned something else, the lottery system in the United Kingdom sets aside a portion of the winnings to fund community heritage projects through the National Heritage Fund. I had a chance to learn more from one of their staff who attended the event. From what I understood, the organization runs its program like a community development project. One of their programs is to support community members or non-profit organizations to create business plans. Funding for community projects is only granted by the National Heritage Fund if there is an invested interest in the community to maintain the project. I liked what I heard and it resonated within me.
I was asked if the Canadian government has a similar program as the National Heritage Fund. I had told them I had no idea and that if we don't, we should!
