22 June 2009

I remember that day like it happened a couple of days ago. It still aches in the deep shades of my mind to see the faces of my dear parents, giving me last goodbyes before we separated for a long time.

Once upon a time…

That's how about any fairy tale starts, is it not so?

Well, as for me, I think it’s about time to share the part of my life which makes other people wonder, “Does things like that really happen to people?”. Let me tell you the story about a simple girl with highly unusual life. That is the real story about real people. And if this will be hard to believe, don’t worry, it can happen to anyone - you never know…

Now I am a great fan of Indian cuisine. But it wasn’t love at first glance. My first acquaintance with it took place when I was ten and I was far from liking it.

At the time we were staying at a hotel called ‘Rajdoot’ in Delhi. My four-year-old sister and I adored the hotel: there was a swimming-pool in front of it and it was fun going down to the restaurant for our meals three times a day.

When I was ten years old, my father was sent on a long-term business trip to India. My mother, my 4-year-old sister and I were to accompany him.

In Delhi we checked into a luxurious hotel paid for by the employer. Everything was provided for us as we had no rupees of our own. After staying there for a few days we were to continue our journey. Our destination was Ranchi, a city in the northeast of India.

In my childhood my father worked as an interpreter. It was his job to meet English-speaking foreigners and accompany them about the city.

When I was a girl of about seven or eight, Dad once asked Mum and me to the circus where he was to take a young Englishman from Nottingham called Marc. By that time I’d only started to learn English at school.

Now I can cook nearly anything if it’s not too complicated, of course. But it hasn’t always been like that…

When I started living on my own at the age of seventeen, I could bake cakes, mash potatoes and fry eggs. It was on that meagre diet plus chocolate that I lived quite happily for a couple of years.