Summary:

Ranjna is Kiwi Fijian-Indian and tells us about her whānau and their journey to New Zealand. 

Ranjna talks about her childhood and how growing up in a fruit shop gave her vital business and interpersonal skills that allowed her to grow the leadership and business skills that she has today. Ranjna talks specifically about meeting the demand of the customer, and for this she shares her apple analogy and the importance of knowing the difference between fruits so that the customer is always satisfied. 

Ranjna also tells us about how at 18 she got sent to India to meet her husband through an arranged marriage. Ranjna and her husband who is a Doctor and wanted to become a specialist in his field, then came back to New Zealand where they were told that New Zealanders weren’t ready to have specialists with an accent, so were told to go and set up a practice in a community that sounded and looked like them. They then went to South Auckland and had a practice but realised that they weren’t meeting the needs of the community with the traditional 9-5 practice hours, so they adapted the model, despite their partners in the medical field opposing the change saying that they were making healthcare “too accessible”, they delivered what the community needed, which was accessible healthcare. 

The general practice then grew and grew, but their other medical colleagues didn’t believe that Ranjna and her husband were doing things the right way, labelling them as ‘dodgy’ because of their skin colour, this meant that they continuously got audited for the work they were doing, all of which was serving the community! 

Ranjna talks about this and how these experiences and the journey through the system as ‘coloured medical professionals’, has unfortunately meant that her children have grown up thinking that racism is something you just tolerate to survive. Ranjna shares stories about her children and grandchildren now standing up for not only themselves but their culture and is something that Ranjna is doing too.