Growing up in a ‘Palace’
‘Once upon a time there lived a girl in her beautiful palace.’
What is the first thing that pops in your mind? Is it a Fairy tale or the princess? Perhaps a happy ending or a knight in his shiny armour?
Now I am not a 10-year-old who is going to write a fairy tale but it does start like one. People associate the word palace with happiness, royalty and luxury. Maybe it would make sense if I could actually feel the happiness or the luxury but unfortunately, I cannot afford either. When I tell you that I live in a palace, most of you would think I am leading a charmed life and well - maybe I am. It might appear like a dream but the thing with dreams is, they are not quite real. It’s the lies and deceptions that forces us to live in the dark. We are never quite satisfied with things we have, so we dream.
Corruption, a word I believe all of you might have heard. This disease plagues the world and has crossed the threshold of my house – my so called palace. When you have something as fascinating as a palace and a museum, then you have to be strong enough against whatever is forced on you. Money and power are the two most significant forces that drive people to do questionable actions and with a palace, like mine, it becomes a fuel that could potentially start a blazing inferno.
It is harder now, to keep this fire at bay because believe it or not, life is not normal for me. In fairy tales, they tell you, the truth prevails doesn’t it but the reality is quite different and in a world driven by corruption, fighting the good fight can’t always get you justice. Every day we have to fight just to keep the museum from going into the wrong hands, just to keep our family’s heritage in the folds of our own, and just to keep everything that’s rightfully ours.
My home—wait, can I even call this my home? Where instead of being hidden and happy, I am exposed to reality. I have learned that no prince in shining armour is coming to save me or my family. We have to struggle alone and fight alone. We have to be strong and never give up on ourselves. This house is ours and the museum is ours so the fight to save it is also ours. To expect magic or rescue is just a waste of time. We have to build our own future and our own solutions. We can’t wait for anyone or anything because waiting - waiting will cost us our heritage and we cannot afford that.