Interview Luton: Luton Culture’s Viji Desikan

CARL MUNGAZI is on a mission to uncover the hidden stories of Luton. His aim: to interview at least one person from every nationality represented in the town.

GROWING up as an only child meant Luton Culture employee Viji Desikan was the darling of her family.

The 31-year-old community centre assistant was born in Tirupathi, India, but grew up in Chennai with her mother, father and a host of relatives who constantly fussed over her.

Wherever she went, there was always someone nearby making sure nothing happened to her and she enjoyed close relationships with aunts and uncles.

Viji says: “Most of the time I was with my family and I never went out much with friends. Until I was seven or eight I was the only child in the family, because my uncles were bachelors, so they really took care of me and wouldn’t allow me anywhere outside.

“If I went to the beach, park or zoo someone had to be with me, even if it was just to cross the road.”

As a young girl, Viji says she never considered travelling abroad, so she focused on completing her studies. After high school she did a bachelors degree and then a masters in biochemistry in 2006.

She then became a technical editor and part of the training involved a trip to the UK in 2007.

“I came to London for the training and that was my first time travelling abroad,” she says. “I came here for a week and when I arrived I really loved the place because it was totally different. Chennai is a hot city and I came in November so it was cold and a different experience for me.

“It was my first flight outside the country and I was without my parents and my family. I came with my colleagues. I really loved it.”

The trip to London created an itch Viji resolved to scratch when the opportunity presented itself again. Fortunately, it did a few years later when she married her fiancé Mithun in 2009. He had been working as a research analyst before they met and soon after they married he came to the UK to do a masters degree in Bradford in 2010. Shortly afterwards Viji joined him and the couple moved to Luton after Mithun found work.

She says: “We thought, ‘Again, it’s a new thing for us’, but we could manage in Bradford so I thought we could do it in Luton. When we came here he was working a lot.

“When he was a student we had some time to spend together but when he started working, other than the weekends, I hardly saw him. I thought, ‘I can do housework for some time, but after that I am really bored, I don’t have any friends or anyone to move around with or talk to’. I decided I had to come out to do something for myself and also for society.”

Viji says her main problem was a lack of confidence but that all changed when she started volunteering. She developed friendships and was ‘roaming around’ the town helping Luton Council deliver its services.

The change in her character was so remarkable that when she went to India earlier this year her family commented on how different she seemed.

“I’m more confident now than I was before, so even they could see that in the way I talk to people and interact with them, they could see that I had improved a lot.

“I wouldn’t talk much before. People would have to come and talk to me and I’d just respond with a ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ But now they can see that I’m interacting more with people. They really like it, they like the change in me.”

Viji says she feels she has blossomed in Luton and is excited about her future.

She adds: “This is the place where I found I could do whatever I could to improve myself, my skills, experience and confidence level.

“I’ve gained more knowledge about different cultures and I’ve met many people. I gain more knowledge from them and they tell me about their culture, what they celebrate and their different occasions, so I would say that this is one of my favourite places.”

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COOL, CALM AND CONFIDENT: Viji Desikan says Luton’s varied culture has allowed her to blossom

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