KATRINA KAIF interview to ANSHUL CHATURVEDI
It’s just that our family has one of the most interesting lives, due to the one simple fact that my mother, at a very young age, decided that she wanted to dedicate her life to social causes, to NGOs. And the organizations she worked with throughout her life work in countries that are currently in what you would call – state of crisis is a bit much, but, yes, a state of dire need. So our transitions in growing up were – from Hong Kong where I was born, to China, then to Japan, and from Japan by boat to France. That’s one of the few clear memories I have as a child because on that boat ride, everyone was sick – except me. And it’s a long, long boat ride from Japan to France!
How old were you?
About 8. After France, Switzerland – and I’m cutting out many East European countries where we were for only a few months each – then Poland, in Krakow. Since I’ve seen so many huge, huge drastic things, my mind has become a little bit like, there are sections, and I rarely tap into those sections because there is too much information to comprehend.
I think it was sometime around the Berlin Wall fell, I remember the sense of extreme depression and misery over the whole city – and the image of everyone waiting in line for bread, that was the situation at that time, that image has stayed in my head for ever.
After that we went to Belgium, then to Hawaii, which was a short time, and then came to London, and then we were there for about three years. But because my mother is originally from Bath, which is in the UK, people always have this thing that I grew up in London. Which is funny, because I have only spent all of three years there.
The Times of India for more