Shukran Kuwait

Wednesday, February 22, 2023

In a few months, she will have to depart from the land she considered her home all her life, but she hasn’t realized this yet.

Day after day, time’s flying, and she’s now busy preparing for the start of 10th grade, yupp final year at school and on this beautiful land for her and many of her friends. As she sits expressing her shock on how grade 9 passed like a flash, she isn’t thinking about how she will soon be saying this about her life in Kuwait. she’s enjoying her moments on the seashores building sand castles with younger kids and helping them fetch water from the sea, and in vast desert lands racing and taking chances on buggies, also making sure to take up every opportunity to enjoy in the captivating land of Kuwait City that displays the most beautiful scene of a city life. She’s always ready to prepare Qahwa when they’re planning to spend their weekend under the sky, she’s yet to successfully capture in her camera the sceneries that for sure capture her heart.

What would be the last thought in her mind when she’s busy painting the Kuwait tower on a fabric purse? Leaving Kuwait? Moving away from where she finds peace?
(Read on…)

I’ve always been excited to go to India, my homeland and be mesmerized by its beauty, meet relatives and attend weddings but that feeling which fills my heart when I travel on the roads in Kuwait on our return, is just what home feels like. There’s an inexplicable feeling of attachment and love to every part of life in Kuwait.

Every time I visit the seaside and sit on the soft sand beneath the vast sky, pieces of me get put back together which I never even realized were broken. I was living an ordinary life and before I knew it, my parents were discussing whether it was better for me to continue my studies in India right after 10th grade or after 12th grade. When I came to learn their discussion, at that moment it hit me, that I had made it to grade 10 which was a great news but also meant that life was going to bring me a huge, well…maybe surprise, I guess?... No…change.

Yes, I am someone who looks forward to adventuring, but leaving Kuwait, the country I was raised in and deeply loved, was never an idea that strike. Kuwait meats a lot to me, when I say ‘a lot’ I mean a LOT.

I got shaped into who I am in Kuwait, not sure if I hadn’t found myself or was a nobody, until I was provided with education to give me an insight to the reality, thousands of opportunities to build myself into a responsible person, boost my creativity and develop a purpose. I started off with my journey of education at Indian Learners Own Academy in Abbasiya when I wasn’t even 4 and joined Indian Community School in Khaitan, during more serious years of education. And that’s when I turned into whom I used to consider ‘’always busy and unaware of fun’’ type of person. Don’t get me wrong I love what I’m doing but it keeps me busy on the weekdays, which means I now deeply value the times we spend outside our apartment so usually it’s a hope that dad’s free on the weekends (which don’t have loads of assignments waiting on me) to take us out. I and my siblings have always come up with ways to convince our father for the same but now I’ve got a new way to convince him, “Dad, I’m in grade 10 and I have very little time left in Kuwait.” He seems to understand and my siblings are really enjoying it. Eeee do I sound like a bad daughter? Don’t worry My dad is always happy to be in the fresh air too. It’s always difficult for me and my siblings to agree on where we want to go, the malls, the beach, the gardens, the Kuwait City or some restaurant. I just LOVE them all and it’s impossible to ever get bored of spending time in these places. The thought of leaving this beautiful country itself shrinks my heart.

It was time I start convincing myself, since accepting things like this takes longer than what would seem acceptable-

To work on myself and in order to pursue my career I know I’ll have to leave this country but this country will never leave my heart. Childhood memories and attachments formed then, can be avoided but never ignored or forgotten. I see myself coming back and visiting the streets and places I go today, when I’m an independent woman. I am eternally grateful to Kuwait, the magical land, on which I’ve smiled, laughed, played, learnt and experienced the best moments that would forever stay imbedded on the canvas of my mind and deep in my heart. For everything I am and hope to become, all foundations were set here, it comes from the bottom of my heart, Shukran O Kuwait!