Anglo-Indian family revels in Kannadiga roots

MYSORE: For Peter Pereira, a third-generation member of a family which worked at the Shivanasamudram hydel power station, ragi mudde and soppina saru are staple fare. If that doesn't make him a localite of Rottigatte, here's something to mull over: whether in London or in Rottigatte, every member of Pereira's family speaks fluent Kannada. "I don't know how we've developed such a liking for the language and the village," says Pereira, turbine operator at the power station, which is about 140km from Bangalore.
Come December, his nine brothers and four sisters, some of them residents of London, will congregate at Rottigatte, a village about 1.5km from Shivanasamudram, to celebrate Christmas, as they've been doing every year.Though Pereira, 59, is expected to retire in November, the family's bond with the region will continue as some of the siblings own farmhouses in this village.
Peter's maternal grandfather Arthur Clarke from London had settled down here and worked at the power station set up by the British in 1902. Clarke was one of the engineers who installed turbines here. Peter's father, Leo Pereira, a Frenchman who married Arthur's daughter Euna, worked as a sub-engineer at this station before his retirement in the early 1970s.
Though they observe some Anglo-Indian customs and traditions, their love for Rottigatte grew over the years. "Every day, we eat ragi mudde, soppina saru and rice. Of course, we know how to cook western dishes too," Peter says in Kannada. He adds all his brothers and sisters, including those who relocated to England, speak Kannada at home.
He says he and his brothers who studied at the power station school were given the cold shoulder by their schoolmates. "They may have hated us because they identified us with colonial rulers. But we had no ill-will against them," he said, adding he believes in the philosophy of forgive and forget.
"My daughter Averil Ann and son Shawn have decided to go out of here in search of jobs, but my wife Arlinge and I want to spend the rest of our life in Rottigatte," he says.