My pleasure was snatched from me the next time I visited because I had two aggravating little brothers with me as well. It wasn’t that bad but just not as good as before because my family had my little brothers demands to keep up with as well as mine. Nevertheless I still had my status as the only girl and the eldest child in the family!
One incident that got my family’s attention back on me was when I nearly lost my life. In India farm animals run around everywhere in villages. I was in a small village visiting a couple of relatives when I had the most horrific experience of my life. My cousins were at mosque and I wanted to go and meet them. So like any impulsive 4 year old I just ran out the house to go to the mosque. The next thing I remember after that was me being in hospital feeling really heavy. I got told later on that I had been stepped on by a buffalo. Everyone was shocked to see that I was still alive because the buffalo was enormous and I was tiny. My mother always says that it was because of that experience that I lost so much weight; I had been a really chubby baby.
The second time I went India at the age of 14 my parents took me sight seeing all around the west of India. By this time I was mature enough to form my own views and opinions on what was around me. The places we went to were quite repetitive. There were a number of castles which belonged to various kings from the past. It was interesting at first but because of the repetitiveness it became quite boring. The castles were all very spacious and it was easy to get lost in them: I actually did get lost a couple of times.
There was this one castle we went to which really fascinated me, it was in Udaipur and it belonged to one of the richest and most selfish king ever to rule the country. He had a bath tub that was made purely of gold and it was 5 times the size of a normal bath tub. The bath tub was round and it had steps to climb in and out of it. In those days people did not have running tap water. For days after that viewing all I could wonder was how long it must have taken his servants to pull water out of the well, heat it up and pour it in the king’s humongous bath tub!
The only exception was the Taj Mahal in Agra. The Taj Mahal is one of the world’s greatest reminders of love. We had a tour guide with us when we visited the Taj Mahal; he told us the whole story behind why the Taj Mahal was made. The Taj Mahal was built by a King of India in remembrance of his wife, Mumtaz There was supposed to be another Taj Mahal a couple of meters behind the existing one, it would have been black, and it was supposed to be in remembrance of the king himself. There would have been a golden bridge linking the two buildings but unfortunately the king never got the opportunity to do this. His son locked him up in order to become king himself. The king died a lonely prisoner still mourning his wife.
Another fascinating fact linked to the Taj Mahal was that on completion the king ordered all of the builders hands to be chopped off so that nothing so beautiful could be created again. I find this particularly shocking because I had witnessed an actual public amputation when I was 10 years old.
I was on holiday in Saudi Arabia with my family. We went there to pay respect to ALLAH (swt). It was such a beautiful country with lights everywhere and constantly busy streets. People were really friendly and helpful. We went shopping in the evenings because of the heat. All the shops were open until at least 3 in the morning. My mother and I were shopping in a market enjoying the cool evening when we realized a crowd was gathering in the middle of the market. We were curious to know what was going on so we joined the crowd. My mum picked me up and held me high so I could see above the adults. At the centre were a group of men one had a huge butchers knife and there were two more holding a fourth man down, and pushing his arm onto a table. Before I could make sense of what was happening the man with the knife raised it above his head and smacked it down chopping his hand off. There was blood everywhere; it was like a movie scene. People were screaming in Arabic, for one moment I thought it was street theatre and everyone was acting but my mum’s reaction told me it was for real. She found out the victim had stolen something and that was the punishment in Saudi for theft.
My life so far has been overly dramatic and full of adventure. I nearly died at the age of four and I nearly saw someone dying without an arm at the age of ten. It’s a miracle I am still alive and I want to live life to the fullest and explore much more than I already have. I feel that knowing you might not have been alive today really helps you appreciate every moment you have to live.
From seeing the things I have in my life I have decided I want to help people and make their lives better. I want to be a doctor and help as many people as I possibly can. It still hurts me today to think about the pain the man went through in Saudi when he had his hand chopped off, and the pain I must have gone through when I was stamped on by a buffalo. A lot of people have told me that they never expected me to be a doctor because I do not seem like the type of person to study as much as I would need to, but I have always objected to that because I do not think that the way a person acts determines what they want to do in life.
I will try my best to achieve my goal because I feel I am privileged to get the chance. I strongly believe that everyone gets more than one chance in life and when one door closes another opens. My motto in life is “Don’t cry because you have lost something; smile because you once had it”.
