Parent Compass Radio

Tripti: I knew even at a young age that I wasn't as important as a white person. I was born during apartheid. Hinduism, I'm relating to those idols. I'm really confused that there was another God. And I never once doubted that she loved us.

I hear a scream. Why did everybody leave me? She's very brave. She would do anything for me and my two sisters. I am going to survive. I went through hell to find Jesus. I went through hell.

There's a lot of talking that goes on in my house, a lot of communication, and usually a lot of noise. We spend a good amount of time together. Shivani is the oldest. She's 21, and she's in her last year of college. My middle daughter, Rishika, is 20, and she's doing engineering. My son just turned 15 and is in high school, and he loves theater.

Guest (Male): I spend a lot of time with my sisters when they come back from college. Me and my sister Rishika like to play cards a lot, so the game we play the most is probably Speed.

Rishika: We used to play a lot of volleyball and basketball inside the house, but we broke too many of our mom's nice things, so we're not allowed to do that anymore.

Tripti: We did Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for a while. All of us went and did Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu together. It was too fun. It's about being just together and talking and communicating. I talked to my kids a lot when they were babies, so they're just good at talking.

Guest (Male): My mom is really caring, for sure. I know she would do anything for me and my two sisters.

Shivani: She's very brave. She's definitely been through a lot. And I never once doubted that she loved us or that she cared about us. Even in the hard times, she never gave up and she never was like, "Do your own thing. I don't want to talk to you guys right now" or "I just want to be on my own right now."

Her ability to stay strong is a good example. I see her going through hard times and even if she's not having a good time, she says, "Just take it day by day, and eventually it'll get better."

Guest (Male): So much of her focus is put towards us and then, of course, Christianity. That has made her very caring towards us. She's been through a lot, and she keeps on going, and we're better off because of it.

Tripti: I went through hell to find Jesus. I went through hell to go find Him.

I was born in Rhodesia, actually. It was Rhodesia before it gained independence and became Zimbabwe in 1980. My parents had immigrated from India to set up a business and start a life. I was born during apartheid. Because of the color of my skin, we weren't allowed to live with the white population. When I was born, my mom had to give birth to me in a separate room. That's how I came into the world.

My very first home was in the middle of the African bush. Imagine tall savanna trees and brown grass and this isolated building in the middle of nowhere and then a road. We stayed behind the store. My mom and dad ran the little storefront and as cars went by, they bought soda or whatever it was they bought.

My first recollection was in 1980 when we gained independence. We had moved into this little small town and lived in an apartment above some stores. It didn't even have a stoplight. There was just one park and then shops around the park. I remember lots of rioting and a lot of noise. I didn't quite understand what was going on, but there were a lot of people in the streets. I just knew something had happened.

Things did shift because prior to that, we had to go to a different school because we were segregated. Then overnight things started to shift and all of a sudden, I ended up in the local school with everybody else. I didn't quite understand what was going on. I was only nine. My mom and dad were like, "Oh, well, you can go to this new school now." My older brother and we could be together and then my younger brothers as well could go.

I knew even at a young age that we were different because of the color of skin. I always knew that we were treated differently. I wasn't as important as a white person. It was weird for me now to be integrated with all the white people.

In Hinduism, I remember we had this little blue structure in our room at the back of the store. It was made of wood and in there were a lot of idols and pictures of different gods. At a very young age, maybe even when I was three, I remember sitting in front of that little blue structure, the homemade temple thing. My mom would teach us this one mantra; it was called the Gayatri mantra.

Even though I knew there were lots of gods and my mom was telling me this, I don't know what it was about the way my mother had told me initially, but I was stuck on this one God in the sky up there. I was scared of him, not in a bad way, but I was like, "He's so powerful and he's strong." I had 100% respect for him.

There was a teacher there called Lady Treadgold. We had British teachers because it was a British colony, and she did Scripture Union. I had to do Scripture Union once a week. She would tell us different stories from the Bible, so it was intriguing. I remember being stubborn and saying, "No, but that's not what my mom is telling me. My mom is telling me about a different god." I'm relating to those idols, obviously, because that's what my mom has taught me. So Lady Treadgold and I would get in trouble. I would end up in the corner with the white dunce hat. Why are you teaching me these things? It confused me. It really confused me that there was another God.

When I was four, on a sunny day, I was just playing with a little spinning top. I'm just happy. I remember being happy. Then I hear a scream at the back and it's my father. I run to the back of the store where we lived. I see my father on the bed and there's just blood everywhere. There was blood literally coming out of his throat. My mom is dialing those rotary phones and it just seems like everything is just in slow motion.

The ambulance comes and they take my father away. My mom and my dad leave. I would find myself just alone sitting on these steps. I was numb. I was so numb. I remember just being paralyzed. I'm shocked and I'm not even crying. I'm alone and thinking, "Why did everybody leave me?" I felt abandoned.

All of a sudden, I feel like a warm blanket being put on my shoulders, except there's no warm blanket. It just feels like that. I feel comforted. Somebody's here who's going to save me. I hear a voice and the voice says, "It's okay. It's okay." I don't know how I can explain this, but I knew it was God. I knew God had come and He was going to rescue me. In that moment, I heard His voice and then I was like, "Okay, I'm going to be okay."

My father did survive. He spent almost a year in the hospital. He had drunk caustic soda. It's an acid that you use to clean grease off engines. It burnt his throat. He got a tracheostomy, a hole in his throat. So that's how he was able to breathe. From that minute, I developed in me this spirit of survival. I am going to survive because I have somebody who's going to look after me. I couldn't see Him, but I could feel Him and I could hear Him. I obviously connected it to what I'd been taught at home, like my mom says there's a god, so I connected him to Hinduism. I didn't delineate between religions. I kept that incident and that moment with God very close to my heart.

At school, I wasn't very smart and I wasn't very focused. At home, my father, when he came home, was very angry. I don't know what happened, but he would just be very scary. Sometimes we'd get hit and I'd be trying to run out of the house so I wouldn't get hit. There was a lot of tumultuous things going on in the home as well.

When I was 12 years old, I was coming home on my bicycle. It was maybe about six o'clock, so twilight maybe and the sun's going down. It was very quiet. I hear someone call my name, "Tripti." I'm thinking, "Who's calling me?" There's nobody there, just somebody calling my name and I can't see anybody.

In that minute, I recognize His voice and I'm like, "That's God." He says, "I will send you out of this country. I will send you into the world, and I want you to prepare." When the Lord told me that I had to leave, already in my brain, I was like, "I'm going to have to be smart. I'm going to have to go to college and I'm going to figure a way out of here."

I'm in math class the next day and I wrote a test, a math test. My teacher's marking my papers and she literally says it out loud in the class, "60, 70, 80, 90, 100%." She about fell off her chair, I tell you. I don't know what God did to my brain, but overnight I became brilliant. God activated a brain cell or two. I didn't fight anymore. I became quite a nice child.

There was one university in the whole country. I have to get to that university. When I went to high school, I was always in the top one or two of the entire high school. I did end up in college and got my science degree. My first job was at a high school at the school called Peterhouse. The motto of that school was "Built on a Rock." What's interesting about the Anglican school is they'd have service every Sunday, so I'd go. I was always attracted to the churches. I would just go sit in there. I think I was communing with God. I was just sitting there quietly, but it didn't click that I was a Christian. I was just doing what everybody else was doing. I still had the idols. Even though we had all the Hindu temples with the idols and all that, it wasn't peaceful.

I'm teaching and at the four-year mark, God's like, "Remember what I told you when you were 12? It's time to go." I go to London. My first job is I'm Miss Bubble Wrap. I end up packing up Twickenham Studios. Then I ended up getting a job at this one company where I ended up doing computer work. That's where I started to get into the world of IT.

Then I meet my cousin on my father's side for the very first time. He's like, "I'm getting married in Charlotte, North Carolina. You must come to the wedding." I end up going to his wedding from London. My future husband's aunt sees me and she says, "I want to introduce you to this man." Within two weeks, he asks me to marry him, which is crazy. I know, sort of like an arranged marriage thing too. So I end up going back to London. His mom lives in London and his brother, so I got to meet them. Then I get married six months later and I come to America.

The marriage just got worse and worse and it was just tough and tougher. We were fighting a lot and split custody. One week at my dad's, then one week at my mom's. I lose three jobs in a row. These demons would torment me night and day, emotionally controlled. I said, "I'm done. God, I'm done. I'm tired. What else do you want from me, God? Is it Jesus?"

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