Having lived in India from my childhood and brought up in Mumbai, I had many memorable childhood experiences and I learnt a lot of lessons. As a child I lived in quarters or apartments provided by my father's company and staying here taught me lessons like the true meaning of equality, accepting people as they were and I also learnt to find happiness and satisfaction with whatever I had.
In the colony that we lived, there were many apartments and so many people, who belonged to different castes, followed different religions, belonged to different economic backgrounds. All this did not matter in the least to the children. All of us played together, fought, made up, laughed and even went exploring the huge colony by ourselves. There were times when, while playing our friends would fall and hurt themselves, the others would take it upon themselves to reach them home safely and explain the situations to their parents. Spending time with so many children and their parents taught me the important lesson of equality. People, though belonging to different religions, caste and creed were humans. They got hurt the same as everyone, felt hungry and ate similar kind of food and felt happy and laughed at the same jokes.
Secondly, I learnt the lesson of accepting people as they were. My group of friends consisted of dark and fair children, children who were aggressive, those who were helpful. There were some who spoke loudly,and those who spoke softly. While some were good in sports, others were good in academics. There were wide differences but we accepted everyone in the group. Fights were forgiven, children apologized to each other and then played together. There were times when windows were broken while playing cricket but friends stood up for friends and defended each other, and helped each other out of tricky and embarrassing situations. Children good in sports or academics helped those weak in these subjects. Learning to accept played an important role in my life specially after marriage, where I had to leave one family and accept a whole new one.
Lastly, my experience of staying in these quarters taught me to find happiness in whatever I had. I used to have many toys. But I always found new and exciting toys at my friends' place, which seemed more fun. I started feeling jealous, until one day a friend visited me, played with my toys and told me I was so lucky to have these toys. She said, she did not have the same toys or as many as I did. I realised that every friend who visited me felt the same way, as I felt when I visited them. I learnt to be happy and satisfied with what I had.
In conclusion, childhood taught me many important lessons which are helping me in my adult life. They have left a lasting impression on me. I will always be happy for these lessons that I learnt in my childhood.
Sacheta, after reading your essay, I must say that you have a well written essay.
You were able to address what is asked of the prompt, the paragraph and the writing style
is done neatly and most importantly the grammar is correct.
However, I would advise you to do one thing, tame your words, I mean, use words that are apt
to everyday conversational english, some of the words like "In the colony that we lived", you can say
"In the area where we live", it's smoother, it's more conversational.
I suggested doing this in order for readers to connect more to the essay and more importantly,
for better understanding.
I hope my insights helped and I wish to see more of your writing here on EF.
