Dear Baya,

       Who am I? Before you call me crazy for asking you such a question, let me explain.

       I was born and grew up for a while in Australia, but I live in England. Am I English or Australian? My body tells me I am a girl, but many of the things I prefer are, I am told, ‘boyish’. What is my gender – and what is the meaning of gender? I am English, but my passport tells me I am British. What is the difference?

     I feel very ‘English’, but my favourite food is Indian and Chinese, my favourite drink is Indian tea, my favourite clothes are Italian, my favourite music is classical German and American jazz. Many of the words I use and the technologies around me, I know, come from other countries.

      You’ve often told me when we walk through Cambridge that many of the things that seem very old, timeless almost, were only invented a short while ago. Why and how do we invent our traditions and customs?

      I suppose it is just that all the old securities are rapidly vanishing. Perhaps this is part of growing up, partly because I still feel a bit Australian. But I think it is more than this. I’m constantly aware of a rush of change, of ideas, of people in what I’ve been told is called ‘globalization’. I’m a ‘global citizen’, but who am I? What is special about me and what universal?

     Perhaps if you could simply explain about personal identity, gender, nationalism and such things in a wider historical way I could understand who Lily is and where she came from.

      Your loving, but confused,

(if she exists!)

P.S. I know that one of your favourite poems starts ‘Know then thyself’. I’m trying – with your help!