OP-ED: Growing up ‘Southasian’

OP-ED

Growing up ‘Southasian’

By Urooj Zia (Pakistan Today; 09 January 2011 — digital and epaper 1 and 2)

Susan Goldmark’s mother, Helma Blühweis, a Holocaust survivor, routinely threw away old toys and stuff to ‘cut down on material possessions’. She also kept a packed suitcase in an empty closet in their New York apartment; and regularly reminded her daughter how privileged she was to ‘not have gone through the horrors’ that Blühweis had endured. While the Holocaust was never discussed in detail in their house, Helma unwittingly inculcated in her daughter the fear of a repeat of ‘the horrors’. [More here]