I was reading the book “ Anne Frank – The Diary of a young girl”.
This is diary of a 13 year old young Jewish girl who had to go into hiding just few months after her 13th birthday along with her family and one more family. She had got the dairy as her birthday gift.
Anne Frank led a normal joyful life in Holland as any other teenage girl of her age. But things started changing when Nazi regiment became more rampant. Anti-Jewish decrees followed each other in quick succession. Jews must wear a yellow star, Jew kids should attend schools meant only for them, Jews cannot use trams, cinema halls, swimming pools; have to return home by 8, they cant even sit in their own gardens beyond eight. The list was endless.
As time passed the Nazi regiment became more aggressive and started giving summons randomly to many Jewish families, which only meant concentration camps, lonely cells, torture & gas chambers.
During those difficult times Anne’s family fled into a hiding, a place in Anne’s Dad’s office in Amsterdam which was their emergency plan. In this secret annex, cut off from outside world the family faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters and the ever present threat of discovery and death.
But Anne continued to write about her experiences in her diary which she called Kitty. Its amazingly moving, thoughtful and sometimes amusing as well. Its a portrait of a young and sensitive young woman and her undying human spirit even in the life’s worst conditions.
But there was one entry of her diary that haunted me for days after I had closed the book. It was an entry made on April 4, 1944 where she says “Dear Kitty, I don’t want to live in vain. I want to be useful to people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death” God, what a thought!!
As I read this entry strangely my thoughts drifted to my childhood and what I wanted to become at that time. My hearts thumps and Goosebumps set in as it dawns over me that my desires were exactly the same as Anne’s !!
I had no clue, if I wanted to become doctor, engineer, lawyer, teacher or anything. But one thing I was clear was, I wanted to do something big, be useful to as many people as possible, and even those whom I don’t know.
Even as a kid, strangely I had no desire or longed to celebrate my birthday. But I remember very well, on every teacher’s day and children’s day I used to say to myself that even I have to do something great, that others celebrate my birthday long after I am gone.
Even today, the desire remains intact. Hope I have that the right talent and make something useful out of my life. Hope I will be useful to as many people as possible, touch as many lives as I can and I continue to live on long after I am gone!!.
