The Mehta Family: A New Life in Hāwera

Travelling to a new country with all your worldly goods, not knowing what waits for you there is daunting enough – but doing it with just $6 in your pocket must be terrifying. But this is exactly what teachers Gowardhan Lal Mehta and his wife Kailash did in 1969 as a young couple looking for adventure and a new life for themselves.

Mr Mehta said: ""At the time, there was a craze among young Indian people to go out and see the world and we wanted to be part of that. We chose New Zealand because it looked good on a map with a good climate – the UK was too crowded, Canada too cold, Australia too hot and America too fast.” “And Indira Ghandi called New Zealand 'The Jewel of the Pacific'," added Mrs Mehta

When it came to choosing where in New Zealand the Mehta's were to live, geography once again played a big role. Mr Mehta said "I was offered jobs in Gore, Whakatāne and Hāwera so I looked on a map of New Zealand to see which would be the best place – Hāwera is at 39.5 degrees latitude which suggests a nice climate so we came to Taranaki."

In an attempt to stem the flow of emigration at the time, the Indian Government decreed that each person was permitted to take only US$6 with them. This had little effect on the idealistic couple, however, and they boarded the plane prepared to deal with whatever financial hardship lay in wait.

It wasn't long before their funds began to dwindle once airport tax and a night in a motel at Wellington was paid for – but the couple decided to spend their last few dollars on a cup of tea at Palmerston North during the bus journey to Hāwera – a decision that was to cause confusion later.

Mr Mehta said: "We thought the countryside was so beautiful and so green. In the Punjab, the land is very fertile but it has to be irrigated. I looked at the lush pasture and the hills and thought 'how do they irrigate this?'. The other people on the bus thought it was very funny when I asked them and told me to wait and see. Then it began to rain and they said – 'This is how we do it – God helps!' I never realised how much it could rain until I came here."

The couple duly arrived in Hāwera and were greeted by Athol Forsythe, head of the Mathematics Department at Hāwera High School at the time, with whom they were to spend their first night. Mr Mehta was to teach maths and English at the school and Mrs Mehta, chemistry.

Mrs Mehta said: "They asked us if would like some tea and we said that we were fine thank you as we had had some at Palmerston North. Then we sat and talked, and it got later and later and we wondered what time the evening meal was. It never arrived however so we went to bed hungry. The next day we asked Mr Forsythe and he laughed and explained that in English, tea was the evening meal as well as a hot drink."

It wasn't the first linguistic problem the couple experienced when they first arrived. Although they could speak English well, the New Zealand accent with its clipped vowels proved difficult to decipher.

The couple moved into their own home straight away, with the help of a loan from the local bank, although the business of keeping house was a challenge for the newly married Mrs Mehta. She had no idea what was needed in the way of paraphernalia needed in the home, so Mr Forsythe's wife took her shopping. Mrs Mehta couldn't believe just how much was required.

She said: "My life growing up in India was really nice as we had a gardener, cook and washerwoman – my job was to study, play and learn the arts. When we arrived I had to set up house for the first time and I didn't know what I needed. I had to learn to cook by post from my family and friends and pick up tips whenever I could."

 Mrs Mehta found the whole experience incredibly overwhelming to start with. "I had told my sister I would write to her but I was so busy I did not. She wrote a letter to the principal of the school asking if we had arrived as she had not heard anything! So I wrote back, naming all the servants and everything they did and told her I had to do all that and my job too. I really pitied my lot for a time," she said.

But the friendliness of the New Zealand people and their support played a crucial role in the couple settling down and making Hāwera a permanent place to live – although it did take time. Mr Mehta recalled: "We were here for a year when I handed in my resignation because teaching here was so very different. In India there is very strict discipline in the classroom but here there was not and we were shocked. There was so much disturbance in classes and I found it hard. But Mr Forsythe persuaded me to stay on a bit longer and then we decided that if we were to have children, New Zealand would be a better place for them to grow up. There is so much competition in India for school places and jobs. There is more opportunity here."

Having made their decision, Mr and Mrs Mehta embraced the Kiwi way of life wholeheartedly. Mrs Mehta loves rugby and never misses an All Black game and Mr Mehta caught the DIY bug. "The DIY culture is very different to what you find in India – there you employ someone to do the jobs for you. I felt very liberated at being able to do things for myself like painting – and I learnt a lot. I even got an electric saw!"

Despite their clear belief that Hāwera is their home and will remain so the couple regularly return to India to visit their families. Mr Mehta said: "We find it very easy to move between the different cultures – although we do miss the family values that seem so much stronger in India. Children in New Zealand don't show the same respect. And boys and girls living together before marriage and having children is completely alien."

In fact, Mrs Mehta, upon seeing a job advertisement stating 'unmarried mothers can apply' thought at first that it was some kind of qualification. "I didn't know that women could actually have babies before they were married" she said, shaking her head.

Mr and Mrs Mehta met through a newspaper advertisement – a common practice in India. Mr Mehta's parents placed the advert looking for a bride and Mrs Mehta's parents answered it. Mrs Mehta said: "Yes, ours was an arranged marriage but people do not understand how it works – they think the couple are forced to marry each other. That is not the case - the families get together and the couple meets and if everyone is happy then the wedding goes ahead. If the couple do not like each other then there is no wedding."

The couple have a daughter Suneela, and a son Champak. The Mehtas' believe that their decision to stay in New Zealand to give their children the best opportunities in life has paid off. And on staying in Hāwera, Mr Mehta says "We have so many friends here that we will never be able to leave Hāwera but of course we will never forget our own culture. We have the best of everything here in Taranaki. This is our home now."