“It’s been so many years now, away from parents, relatives, and our own homeland. Now let us also go back to our roots, when Malu is leaving Kuwait”. Few months back, I was awake from a deep long sleep on my cosy bed, to this statement of my Mom. For a minute I could not place the plot. I got up and went to the drawing room to see my parents seriously discussing on our return to India.
My parents always talk about their childhood and whenever there is a chance, they visit their old schools and places, where their memories reside. I love to join them through their journey down the memory lane. Now, what if I want to revisit my schools and places where my childhood memories reside, after few years. It won’t be that easy once we leave Kuwait. My parents could understand what was going through my mind and there was no need to express in words that this land meant everything to me, just as they love the land where their childhood was spend.
For me, Kuwait is not merely a middle- eastern desert country; it is the starting point of my life. I used to live in Abbassiya, a small place often termed as ‘Mini Kerala’. Pre-school age was beautiful, in its own way. I still remember how I cherished my days with Alice aunty and James uncle when my parents were at work. I was safe and happy with them, playing around with Abiya, their daughter one year elder to me. When it comes to my school life, nothing could have compensated my primary days at Integrated Indian School. How can I forget the painting of dinosaur family on the corridors of the senior classes? Reading the quote written at the entrance of another corridor, “Teachers open the door, but you must enter it yourself”, I use to think that there was some secret door there, which leads to a secret passage as in the stories I read, and I still believe it. No doubt, that was the door of the passage, opened by my teachers, through which I am walking in life right now.
Life was getting brighter and eventful with all possible activities I was interested in, as I shifted my schooling to Bhavans Kuwait. The experiences I got from this institution are immense starting from wonderful teachers to the even more wonderful opportunities, be it dance, music, debating, model UNs, elocution, quizzing, or basketball and the list never ends. Talking about the Model UN, the participation and being the best delegate title winner had a huge impact on my life. My perceptions started changing. A platform like IIK Young Reporter Program is so close to heart, which helped me to enhance my writing skills. The opportunity to meet the architect of India's first supercomputer, Padma Bhushan Padma Shri Dr. Vijay Bhatkar, was possible through SIF Kuwait which helped touching the scientific temperament in me. I believe that all these are the gifts of being in this land of opportunities, where the chances of exposure are more, owing to an international mix community that forms the Kuwait population. Being a cross section of the world, we get to taste the gist of everything internationally.
Talking about international opportunities, I am in no way blindfolding the prospects in favour to nurture a precious tradition and culture to which I am born. Indian arts, dance, music and musical instruments, language and literature, Indian scriptures and what not. You name it, and within the small span of Kuwait, we have the best talents as our Gurus here from all walks of life, in the form of your fellowmen in the Indian expatriate society of Kuwait. The friends I made at these coaching classes will always be with me as fond memories to cherish.
The festivals in India are celebrated in a pompous and enthusiastic manner with lots of colour, food, songs and dances; be it Onam, Diwali, Holi, Dussehra, Eid or Christmas, like how we would do, back in India. Cultural associations make is a point to recreate the celebrations at its best. I always loved and appreciated the way how people, far away from their homes, came together irrespective of their backgrounds in order to recreate life in India in the best way possible, trying to make the best out of the available resources. Being away from motherland, our people were cautious enough to make purposeful efforts to preserve and pass it on to my generation. Thanks to the rulers of Kuwait for allowing us to do all these. Participation in various dance events not only helped me to overcome stage fear and face the audience at a young age, but also taught me how to be a team player as it required each and every dancer in the group to sync with each other for an appreciable performance. Chances to meet and share the stage with great artists from India like Paris Lakshmi, Saranya Mohan, Sukanya Mohan, Sarayu and so on were the additional benefits.
Even though it might be a dry desert and not as colourful as India, Kuwait is simply mesmeric with the enthralling 3600 view from the Kuwait Tower, beautiful sea and sea shores, vast deserts at the borders, agricultural farms, rich landscapes with lots of flowers, spacious gardens with soft lawn grasses and trees, beautiful malls, water theme parks, cricket grounds, the beautiful skyline during sunset, the replica of the Indian Taj Mahal and much more.
Of course I am in love with my motherland India and I just love to live at my native place in Kerala; but that moment when I heard discussing a journey back from Kuwait, where the chances to come back are very less, I could feel an unknown pain within. I could feel my eyes getting wet. Sixteen years! I made my home here, in this bread winning land of ours. Yes I am attached and thankful to this country, to which my childhood is tied to. I came here as a small baby, barely six-months old.
It was here where I got my little brother; it was here where we both grew up; it was here where I got groomed into a responsible and capable Indian citizen; it was here that I evolved into what I am today; and now that I am a 10th grader preparing for board exams, the fact remains that, two more years from now, I am going to miss this childhood world of mine. It aches when I have to leave my childhood days here and may or may not return.
I love Kuwait, my second home, the land which showed me opportunities to fly high, the land which made me who I am. Sukran Kuwait.