Submitted by: Nidhi sharma

An experience that changed my life

When I was young, I used to ask myself, why did God

create ants? I wanted to know why God created these
tiny, annoying, “wanna be cute creatures”. But most
importantly why did he give them the ultimate power
to bite? That was what made me detest ants’, their
bites which I long suffered from, for playing in the
dirtiest of places. It was after one of such bites, that I
experienced an
excruciating pain- a
pain I had never felt
before. I then decided
to end it all and save
the world by killing an
ANT.

How I took my
revenge? I could
remember so vividly, I killed them with my bare
hands, destroyed their newly built territories –from
the queens to the labourers, red to black, to the
harmless. I know it had to be away from home (I did
not want my mother to know I had committed such a
crime). I identified a place at our back terrace with a
big, old, almond tree. My initial plan was to capture the
ant amongst its friends {ha! this will teach it a lesson!},
so that when I bring its dead body back, the ants will
feel a great loss.
I decided to kill it slowly. I decided to cut off one of its
legs with a pin and enjoy my vengeance. But, I was
surprised! After cutting one of its legs it started
struggling to stand on its other remaining legs. From
the way the ant was struggling, I could see that it was
suffering from much pain (a pain which I thought then
was excruciating than any bite). I was starting to feel
guilty.
The ant was so determined to fight for its life. It
performed a miracle there and then by standing up on
its remaining legs and slowly limping away from
me…the killer. It was then that I learnt my first lesson
from the teacher ant that, “never give up even in
the most uncompromising situations”. I was totally
ashamed of myself for trying to kill such a hero. Oh my
God!, it was dead. After watching the ant for few
minutes, to my surprise it was being carried away by
two other ants. That did it. Just watching that little
ceremony of the two caring ants, carrying a fellow ant
was enough to teach me a lifelong lesson, “Care for one
another”.
That day, I walked back home very slowly, thinking
about my experience with the ant. Later, I saw another
strange thing happen again, that sent shivers down my
spine. In daddy’s old chair, I figured an ant carrying a
flower stalk as load. I can’t believe it myself, but I
wasted nearly an hour watching the tiny ant carry the
huge load across our back terrace. I was confused
about where it was carrying the load to and for what
purpose.
Several times it was confronted by obstacles and after
a momentary pause, it would make the necessary
move. Staggering with the load, it came to a crack in
the concrete about 0.8 mm wide, at this point my
inquisitive eyes were widely opened.
Breathless anticipations, the ant stood contemplating
for a while; suddenly it laid its load gently across the
crack and walked over it, picked it up on the other side
and continued strenuously. Can you imagine! I was so
fascinated by the ingenuity of the ant and immediately
shouted out for my siblings and dad. Daddy was the
first to appear but returned on his old tired legs. Alex
never showed up, but I gazed at the ant until it finally
disappeared with the load. This experience yet gave
me another great lesson that “we should explore,
discover and overcome every obstacle or challenge “.
Can you imagine God telling us to learn from the ant?
So what can we learn?
So I say to anyone reading this, I entreat you all to
show love and compassion towards one another. For
with love, many battles can be conquered. We should
also develop a determined attitude to achieve our goal
and work as a team and above all never give up. For
even the ant, which is more than a million times
smaller than we are, has managed to prove its worth.
Big blessings really come in small packages. I now
understand why God created the ant. I am not so
ignorant to think only my intellectual superiors can
teach me. If such were the case, then the teacher
would learn nothing from its students, the parents
nothing from their children and I nothing from the ant.
Question i want to ask the world
Why women have to carry out all the rituals and men are
supposed to carry none?

In the society that we live in, all the traditional burdens

and rituals like fasting, wearing sindoor and everything
has to be done by the women only. Men look bachelors
even after getting married. They can wear wht they want
to, they can do what they want to. They dont have to be
scared of the judgements that the society will make for
them. They dont have to carry thr proof of their identity
to every place they go.
Even after all the burdens of traditions and judgement
the woman carried, she still have the courage to
maintain her family.
WhenIaskedthisquestionfrommyteac
hersthathowmarksalonecandefineso
meone’sknowledge.Aretherereallyno
othercriteria?Theyrepliedmeabruptly
andsaid,“Oureducation
systemfollowssomenorms,basedonw
hichwecanjudgeachild’sknowledgeby
his/hermarks.Butwhatmyteacherscou
ldnotanswerwasthat“Isittheonlycriteri
a”ithasoftenbeenseenthatmorecocurr
icularopportunitiesfallinthehandsofth
osewhohavegoodacademicperforman
ces.Onlybecauseourjudgementalteachershavealreadyformedan
opinionthatthesestudentswillbegreatineveryfield.Theyhavelostt
heabilitytounderstandthatastudentwhoisabackbencherintheirm
athclasscanturnouttobeagreatartistorasingerorawriter.Andcanb
emuchmoresuccessfulthanthetopperoftheirclass.

Concluding it all, i would like to say that in a society we should

all live as equal individuals. Nobody should be carrying any
extra burden or pains. Let us for some days not judge people on
the basis of their clothes.
Question from the education system
The question I want to ask the education system is:
When I was in my school or even in my graduation I always saw
teachers giving more importance to the children who scored
well and less importance to the children who were weak in
studies. I never understood why? This made me question the
education system that why a child is being judged on the basis
of marks that he/she obtains. How can marks define someone’s
knowledge?
When I asked this question from my teachers that how marks
alone can define someone’s knowledge. Are there really no
other criteria? They replied me abruptly and said, “Our
education system follows some norms, based on which we can
judge a child’s knowledge by his/her marks. But what my
teachers could not answer was that “Is it the only criteria” it
has often been seen that more co curricular opportunities fall
in the hands of those who have good academic performances.
Only because our judgemental teachers have already formed
an opinion that these students will be great in every field. They
have lost the ability to understand that a student who is a
backbencher in their math class can turn out to be a great artist
or a singer or a writer. And can be much more successful than
the topper of their class. But unfortunately their talent has not
been recognized and appreciated due to less attention and
continuous insults in class.
According to the education system, if a child scores well then
he/she is considered to be intelligent whereas kids who do not
score well are considered weak. This ends right here. Your
marks define whether you are intelligent or not. As per the
education system your marks define whether you will be
respected by the society or not. There is no line in between.
Nothing else matters.

Educational autobiography
1. When I was in class 7th, my class teacher was a
math teacher. Math was never my favourite
subject. I hated studying math. I never got good
marks in math in 7th class .One fine day before our
final exam our math teacher MrsAlka ma’am made
an announcement by calling out the names of
children who were weak in math

that anyone of us scored well she would gift him/her

something. Her words motivated me and I promised
myself that no matter how much I need to work hard I
would score well in math. I started working hard in math.
I started studying math daily for one hour and slowly
slowly I developed my interest in math .I started enjoying
studying math. Then the day of my math exam came .I
gave the exam .i was nervous for the results that
whether I’ll score well in math or not. When I went to
collect the report card with my parents my math teacher
called me and hugged me and said u did it Nidhi. I was on
the top of the world that finally I fulfilled my promise and
she gifted me a chocolate and an interesting book.
2. When I completed my 1st class my dad had lost his
job and because
of that I had to
change my school.
I can never forget
those days as I
was studying in
Modern
VidyaNiketan
(M.V.N school)
one of the best
schools of
Faridabad but as my father lost his job I was
admitted to a school nearby my house. It’s
environment was totally different from my
previous school. I was admitted to Ashirwad Public
School. It was not up to the mark but as my
parents didn’t had any option I started going to
this new school. I was well groomed in M.V.N and I
used to know a lot of English poems that was
something different from the children of
Aashirwad .Whenever there used to be any
functions, the teachers would always put me
forward to recite the poems. I unknowingly
became every teacher’s favorite. In starting I used
to enjoy getting attention but later when it kept
on going I stopped liking it. My class fellows
cornered me because of the attention I was
getting. By the passage of time things became
worse and my classmates had stopped talking to
me. I used to sit in the class alone and sometimes
cry by seeing them enjoying. It was the turning
point in my life as a child. I didn’t knew why it was
happening with me or what should I do. I used to
go n plead my friend to talk to me or let me play
with them but they used to ignore me all the time
for absolutely no reason. I started hating going to
school. My studies were affected by it. I became
silent. My parents noticed the changes in me and
they decided to have a conversation with my
school teachers .I don’t know what conversations
they had but it didn’t improved the situation. I
used to pray to god to please send me back to my
previous school because I was not able to adjust in
this environment .I used to think what is my
mistake if I know a little bit English .Why are my
 classmates treating me so bad? I was not able to
focus in my studies. I used to come home and cry
and tell my mom that I don’t want to go to this
school and finally my parents changed my school
and I was admitted back to my M.V.N School.

3. I always loved playing .I have always been a sports

person. We used to have sports day in our school
every year .When I was in
my 5th class I got selected
for a 100m race and relay
race.

I was very happy that I

got selected. Every morning we used to have its
practice .I used to practice at home also because I
wanted to achieve the first position. Finally the
day came i.e our sports day .I was very nervous as
my parents came to watch my performance. They
had hopes from me and I was tensed that whether
I’ll be able to fulfill their hope or not. Finally the
announcement of my event made. I prayed to god
that please god I should win please do help me
 and the race started. luckily I won .the moment I
realized I won I saw my parents they were very
happy. I saw in my father’s eyes he was very proud
of me and he hugged me. That moment was
among one of the best moments of my life. I
thanked god for helping me and fulfilling my wish.
4.
As I mentioned I love palying .Whenever there
used to be a games period and we use to divide
teams girls always wanted me to be in their team
as I was a good player. Football is my favourite
game. I was in 8th class when there was a new
coach of football Mr.Mayank in our school. As
usual .I was playing football with my classmates
and suddenly I heard someone calling me out .It
was mayank sir our new coach of football. When I
went to him he asked me whether am I serious
about football and wants to play an inter school
completion .The moment I heard it I became very
happy and I replied to him that it would be a
dream come true as I always wanted to play
football at different levels. He replied me that well
your dream can come true if you work hard for it.
I promised him I would. Then he made our team
for facing the inter school completion. Our
completion day came and we went to modern
school to have a competition with them. As usual I
was nervous and praying to god that I should
stand up to coach’s expectations. The match
began and both d teams scored 2 points. It was
last 5 minutes left and I and my team were under
pressure to score a goal. Then we got a chance to
goal first because of the penalty of opposite team.
My team members decided me to go for making
the goal. I was nervous but I just prayed and
kicked the ball and I goaled. We won the match
and finally my dream was fulfilled.