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The patriarch of Ōrewa’s first Indian family, Purshottam Krishnan, passed away at North Shore Hospital last October. His widow, Ratna Krishnan, says her health is declining. She talked to Hibiscus Matters about their experience living on the Coast.
When Ratna Krishnan and her family moved to Ōrewa in 1975, they felt like they were still in Fiji.
Ratna and Purshottam moved to New Zealand with their daughter Naleen who was aged 12, son Shri, five, and daughter Jaya, one.
“The kids kept asking me ‘are we really in New Zealand?’ – because its small size and the beaches made it feel like home,” Ratna says.
The major difference was that they were the first – and for a good while, the only – Indian family to move to Ōrewa.
“The principal of one of the high schools warned us to be careful, because most people in the area would have never seen a dark-skinned person before – but we always felt welcome,” she says.
“That’s not to say that there weren’t hard times and incidences, however, my kids were bright and had a good sense of humour, so they could hold their own and give it straight back.”
To ensure her children were seen as a part of the community, Ratna encouraged them to join as many groups as possible, including Ōrewa Sea Scouts and plenty of sports teams.
Purshottam and Shri started a social cricket club that played at Ōrewa North Primary, which later combined with the Whangaparāoa Cricketers to become Hibiscus Coast Cricket.
Wherever her children were participating Ratna was on the committee, as well as other roles including teaching Indian cooking classes at Ōrewa College.
Purshottam was a Rotary member for 55 years in both in New Zealand and Fiji, and maintained a 100 percent meeting attendance rate for many years.
“He was very proud of that,” Ratna says. “No matter what country we travelled to, he would always attend Rotary meetings.”
His entire New Zealand career was spent working as a Rodney District Council environmental health officer – the job was the reason the family moved to New Zealand.
Ratna and Purshottam’s community spirit helped them cope with aircraft engineer, pilot and safety officer Shri’s sudden death in a helicopter accident in 2012, when he was aged 42.
At his funeral, they asked mourners to donate money instead of giving flowers, and sent the proceeds to a school in Hosur, India.
Ōrewa Rotarian Bruce Davies was assisting at the school at the time, and helped the family use the funds to open a computer lab in Shri’s honour called the ‘Captain Shri Krishnan English Memorial Lab’.
“We took a family trip to India the year before Shri died to see where our ancestors came from. Shri was inspired by the way the children there were so happy with having nothing and promised to return with his son, but he never got the chance,” Ratna says.
While Ratna’s health remains “dicey,” she is at peace with whatever may come.
“What happens is out of my hands, but if I go, I will get to be with my son and husband.”
“We thank the community who accepted us so well when we moved into Ōrewa.
