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LEAD STORY
Volume 4 Number 1
Choice Career
01 January 1991
It is the behaviour of some of his white compatriots that from time to time causes him to question whether he really belongs in Britain.
The industrial city of Newcastle upon Tyne in north-east England is very different from the Kenya of Nitin Shukla's early years. But it is the behaviour of some of his white compatriots that from time to time causes him to question whether he really belongs in Britain.
Some years ago his family received hostile phone calls and a brick was thrown through their window - though he says that he is fortunate to live in a district where such incidents are rare.
When such things happen to him or other immigrants. Shukla goes back to a commitment he made to be part of the whole community, not just the Asian one. `I have lived here since I was 12 and I have decided that Britain is my home,' he explains.
Through his job as a careers advisory officer he hopes to help answer prejudice in young whites. Much of his time is spent talking individually with youngsters approaching school-leaving age. He knows that some of the whites have had fights with their Asian peers, and others live in parts of the city that are hotbeds of antiimmigrant feelings.
`Sometimes when the student first sees me, I get funny looks,' he says. `I try to do my best for them because I know that a lot of the abuse happens through ignorance.'
Honesty is important in his work, as in society generally, he believes. This means `being 100 per cent committed to my job, taking no short-cuts'. Once he apologized to his boss for misusing the office phone and paid for personal calls he had made.
Shukla entered the careers service almost five years ago on his father's advice. He had wanted to be a teacher but failed an exam due to `too much messing about'. Three years ago he married Bharti. Their meeting was arranged by the parents but the decision to marry was theirs. They now have a baby daughter.
In his work, Nitin Shukla has to deal with young people who lack motivation, discouraged perhaps by their parents' failure to get jobs. On the other hand, some young people 'overaspire', and Shukla has to help them be realistic about their abilities and hopes. `There are frustrations,' he says, `but if, at the end of the day, you feel you have helped someone, it can be very rewarding.'
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