Hey everyone, I’m Vatsala Shah from Nepal (a beautiful country situated in the lap of the Himalayas with even more beautiful people and where there is no age limit for drinking. I was born in Kathmandu, the capital city and have lived there all these years. My dad is an investment banker and my mom is a middle school English teacher. I have an elder brother who is five years older than me and who has recently started his career also as a banker in Kathmandu. The fifth member of my family is my dog Casper, who has been more like my little brother than a pet. We live in a joint family with my dad’s parents. My granny lives in Nepalgunj, a small town in the western part of Nepal. We visit her once a year and I am very close to her. I love my family very much and miss them terribly. I also have a very loving host family here in Bremen. They visit me every now and then and I spent two weeks of my intersession holidays with them.

I had a very simple and beautiful childhood. From what I have heard, I was a very mischievous little girl, always getting my hands on things that were to be kept out of my reach; these included my mother’s perfumes and her exquisite china. As I was the younger child, I was a little pampered and usually got away with things. Both me and my brother were very scared of our dad and always obeyed all his instructions. We were a little more relaxed with our mom, which we still are, and often took her for granted. I studied in a private school that was a few blocks away from my house until Grade 3. I got admitted into Budhanilkantha School in Grade 4.  Budhanilkantha School, which was established by the efforts of the Government of Nepal and the Government of the United Kingdom in 1972, is one of the most prestigious schools in Nepal. Budhanilkantha also offers merit scholarships to students from the remote areas of Nepal.  As it was a residential school, I got the opportunity to mingle with people from different cultural, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. In Nepal, there is a caste system according to which people are classified into different classes in the society on the basis of their castes. It is the surname of a person that determines his/her caste. In Budhanilkantha, we were not allowed to use our last names so that there would be no discrimination and all students would be treated equal.