Mohini – India
“What would I say to the eleven year old myself? I think if the mistake I made from that time is I have not lived life to the fullest.
That’s what I really, really wish to do, and if I can go back to that time I would just be myself and not care about others and have a very, very good time because that time is not going to come back, ever.
I was born in India and I was there from the bottle to 23 years of my life and then I wanted to enhance my career – this is the reason I am here. So I have been studying here for a post-grad diploma at the Unitec Institute of Technology for now. This culture of yours, I love it because people are quite friendly and quite nice. It’s safe to be here, it’s been almost like 3 months for now and I’ve not encountered anything that I feel that this place is not meant to be or I shouldn’t be here. I’ve never felt that way, ever.
That’s the best thing about this place. There have been a lot of people from different places all-together here. I wouldn’t say that specifically here New Zealanders are that fussy on that thing, you know. Being ‘I am a New Zealander and you are not from here’ or something, I have never felt that way ever here, or in Auckland.
The culture I come from is completely different from where I am at the moment. So, there are a lot of cultures that have been happening in India and I got to know about them but then I cannot be celebrating here properly because I don’t find much of my community people over here that I can connect to. I prefer going for the culture people are celebrating here that also makes me feel that you know I am into part of a celebration if not my own; my own sort of a culture, but then other cultures are also fine with me it’s just about celebration, meeting people, and connecting with them.
Diwali is one thing that’s celebrated here, that’s what I have known. Apart from that, the other cultures are quite less over here and I don’t see much of the people celebrating that but I miss it badly because that’s one of my favourites – festivals there back in India. Last month was this festival of mine but I couldn’t celebrate it because I was here in New Zealand and people don’t much celebrate this much over here.
I have been listening to a lot of people – I used to be more worried about what other people think rather than just focusing on what I wanted in my life. At times I felt like doing something and I didn’t do it because I thought that people would be judging me over that. So all of those things now I have grown up I feel no one cares and if people do it shouldn’t matter to you right.
So one should live their life to the fullest so they don’t regret it later. That’s the only thing I feel that there are a lot of ample of things that I really, really wish to do then I was not able to do. That’s the reason I feel that way.”
