Final Personal Esssay - Ranbir Negi.docx

Academic Writing (ENG104)

Ranbir Negi

Anirban Ghosh Sir

1810110300 Adventure Time

I had never known the importance this object without getting lost. Throughout my life, I have lived for an extended period of time in several states of India and foreign countries. I was born in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, and had then moved to Noida. Later to Bangalore, then to Lawrenceville, New Jersey, and back to Bangalore. In between, I had lived in Germany and Singapore for several months too. Through these experiences of travelling to different places, I have started to adapt faster to my surrounding; always learning something or the other from my mistakes. During the summer of 2007, my dad had gotten a transfer to Germany. This would be the first time I would be out of India and soon we had moved to Germany with minimal belongings. Nothing was finalized yet, so we stayed in a rental home in Frankfurt on 6 altafasheinm street for almost three months. In Germany, neither did the people speak Hindi, nor did they all speak or understand English and I came to realize I was an ausländer, a foreigner. From the magnificent infrastructure, to seeing old men fishing near the lake and wishing them “Guten Morgen,” Germany was so astonishing to me. One day, me and my family had decided to go shopping. I was totally excited as I would get to see more of the city. In the early morning we took the Stadtbahn, the tramway, and went to Konstablerwache which is the central shopping area of Frankfurt. When we reached there, we first went inside a formal footwear store. I wandered from my parents and went to explore the other sections of the store. After sometime when I retreated to the same place to find my family, I could not locate them. I walked around and then I saw a narrow spiral wooden staircase, thinking they might have gone upstairs. I climbed up the stairs and was still not able to find them. I glanced around for a while but what I decided to do next is walk out of the entire store itself, as I surmised that my parents would have gone outside. A few stores down were another footwear store and I entered that, not going too far into the store. Without any luck, I exited that store as well. What caught my eye next was the German lady who sold these huge, mesmerizing helium balloons. A light blue dolphin, SpongeBob SquarePants, Hello Kitty, and many more. My parents never got 1

me one as they thought it was too expensive. I saw a boy around my age approach her, asking for a balloon. She showed him five fingers and said, “Five Euros.” I thought I would try my luck and so I approached the lady. I pointed to one of the balloons and asked her for it. To no one’s surprise, she did the same thing which she did to the other boy. Feeling extremely adventurous to search for my parents, I started walking and exploring the market, going even further away from the footwear store. It was a busy weekend and people were everywhere. I walked by different stores, street vendors, some buildings under construction, and went on an endless journey, thinking I would eventually find my parents out of the blue. All this while no one seemed to take notice of a sevenyear-old boy walking all alone. The next thing I remember, I was away from the market area and the streets were quiet. I do not even remember how I had come this far. Over at a bus stop, I saw a German mother who was with her son. They hardly seemed to take notice me too. Seeing them, all thoughts rushed into me and the dread started to creep all over me. I felt alone and did not know where to go. My parents were probably looking for me and anxious. At that moment, I tried very hard to remember the name of the street I lived in. Maybe I could catch a bus from here and meet my parents back home. But of course, I had no money on me and the idea that I travelled alone in a bus frightened me. I continued my journey, not having a clue where I was headed. It was noon and the sun was shining bright. I was near a busy street, walking on the footpath. In front of me, I saw a group of adults approaching me and they looked like they were in their twenty’s. Seeing them I was paranoid as I imagined them causing some harm to me, so I decided to enter the main road. I was walking near the divider on the street, going with the traffic flow. Cars were zooming past me but they were not honking. I do not know how long I continued this journey on the street for, but soon enough a vehicle in the shape of an ambulance approached me. It stopped a little ahead of me and a lady in a green uniform stepped out of it. To my surprise, the lady did not ask me any questions. They probably knew who I was. I was taken inside by her and made to sit. I still remember her smile and the benevolence in it which had comforted me. The vehicle remained in the middle of the road itself. She then opened a hatch on the top to retrieve a teddy bear in a plastic bag and gave it me. It was a brown teddy with almost a square face, small ears and a half smile. She said something in German on the radio and we waited in the van for a while.

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Soon a polizei car came and I was escorted by the men in the car. I was very nervous sitting with the police officers. There were three of them, two in the front and one sitting next to me. I was still clutching the teddy the lady in green had given me. I did not clearly understand English so well, neither was I fluent in speaking it, but the police officer driving the car asked me what I had decided to name the teddy bear. I replied, “Teddy” just like Mr. Bean had named his teddy bear. They did not seem to catch my accent and assumed I said “Candy” and told me that’s a beautiful name. So, I decided to name him Candy and till this day I still have him with me, a simple stuff-toy whose presence comforted me when I was frightened by my surroundings. We reached the police station and I was made to wait in the reception where they gave me a chocolate. I was then taken to wait in a room where they had a TV playing a cartoon I had never seen before. After a while, the officer called me and I was taken to meet my family. As soon as my mother saw me, she sped across the room, saying my name pet name, “Goldy.” Her face looked as if the life in her had been resuscitated. She gave me a tight hug and I was exhilarated to meet my family and guilty at the same time for being lost so ludicrously. Every thing seemed normal after that. We all were just glad to be together after such a stressful day. My mother was unsure about the fact of us moving to a foreign country; to a new beginning, to a new life. Afterall, we did not end up permanently moving to Germany, but looking back at it, it was a profound experience. Many years later, me and my family discuss that and laugh about how easily I got lost but was hopefully found by the respected authorities. I recall always staying close to my parents whenever we went outside, scared of the fact of getting lost again. This experience also made me take German as a third language in school, hoping to visit again and if I did get lost, I will be able to communicate and not worry my parents.

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