Author: Elizabeth Sam Lazaro

Elizabeth de Sam Lazaro is a busy woman who doesn't have time for half the things she wants to do. Her favourite activity is communicating daily with her four children on WhatsApp, exchanging photos and snippets of daily life. Her greatest love is her seven grandchildren scattered over three continents. She enjoys reading, yoga, Sudoku, the easy crossword and interacting with her eight best friends. She likes to knit and sew; yet has a cupboard full of unfinished projects. She loves to read about places and travel. She hates the journey, but likes to arrive. At present she volunteers in two schools, one to teach spoken English and one to run a family welfare project. She has a master's degree in social work from TISS and in English Literature from the Mysore University. She also teaches piano at home to a motley crew of students ranging from eight to sixty.
Reading across Countries, Time, and City Spaces
Alt Shift Archives, Issue 2 - June 2017

Reading across Countries, Time, and City Spaces

I don’t remember learning to read. But, I do remember reading; going down a few steps to a mezzanine floor, to three rooms lined with shelves, a large circular table, a few chairs, and books, everywhere, shelves, table, chairs, windowsills and floor. We were a Goan family in the French concession in Shanghai. As children growing up with multiple languages, Portuguese, French and Chinese, English was unknown. One day, the parents decided that English would be the language spoken at home. My father bought books, new and second-hand, singly and in lots to further this.  I remember these masses of dusty books, English, French, and a few yellowy black bound Portuguese books. As an asthmatic, I was forbidden to go to the library, but I often crept in and breathed deeply of the atmosphere, old...