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Herman
Focuses On Integration |
A SIKH
tartan, a Punjabi laird and Indian dancing to Scottish folk music are
just some of the highlights of a major new exhibition set to open in
the Scottish Capital.
The New Scots
exhibition at the National Library of Scotland is a celebration of
Scotland's Asian community and will showcase the photographic talents
of one of Edinburgh's top Indian restaurateurs.
Amateur
enthusiast Herman Rodrigues, director of the popular Suruchi Indian
restaurants in Edinburgh's Nicolson Street and Constitution Street,
has managed to boil down 15 years' worth of pictures to a vibrant and
colourful 50 for the show. Mr Rodrigues has spent much of his time
since coming to Scotland recording the lives of the Asian community
across the country, and in Edinburgh in particular. Among the
collection to go on display at the National Library is a picture of
his 14-year-old son Ashwin sitting alongside his "Scottish
granny", a family friend.
Other images
include a striking portrait of Baron Iqbal Singh, standing in front
of his Lanarkshire mansion. Known affectionately as the "Laird
of Lesmahagow", the Punjabi-born academic is famous for having
translated the complete works of Robert Burns into Punjabi. Another
picture shows a performance of Indian dancing to Scottish folk music
held last year in George Square Theatre at Edinburgh University
during the Indcoll event.
Key Edinburgh
figures also captured by the Rodrigues lens are Mr and Mrs Unis, of
Unis Foods and Dr Wali Tasar Uddin, owner of Leith's Britannia Spice
restaurant and Scotland's honorary consul general for Bangladesh.
Mr Rodrigues
embarked on the ambitious project almost immediately after coming to
Edinburgh from Jaipur in India with his wife Abha in 1990. Ever
since, he has been building up a huge visual archive of generations
of Bangladeshis, Indians, Sri Lankans, Pakistanis and Mauritian
people who have put roots down in Scotland. He says he has witnessed
a remarkable "evolution" in the confidence of the South
Asian communities living here. He added: "I wanted very much to
get away from the stereotype of Asians working only in restaurants or
corner shops.
"Nowadays
you have so many people coming here to live and work - for example,
there are a number of Indians working in the IT department at the
Scottish Parliament." But it is a photograph of a Sikh drummer
boy resplendent in the Leith-designed "Sikh" tartan which
sums up Mr Rodrigues' feelings about the South Asians' assimilation
into Scots culture.
He said:
"When I arrived in Scotland, I was amazed to see how 'Scottish'
the Asian groups I met were. "There are a lot of similarities
between the cultures - both are rooted in various traditions, and
they wear different dress for different occasions. "Things have
really evolved over the years and people are much more confident now.
"They used to be more reluctant to let me take their picture - I
think I can be a bit of a pain in the neck."
New Scots will
be on show at the National Library of Scotland from March 10 until
May 22
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