After eight years of Razi and Azadar's marriage and four years of their daughter's birth, the 'twins' of the family were born on June 27th 1998 at Uncle Saria Hospital in Karachi. Those 'twins' were me and my sister. A normal delivery it was but I weighed only 3.5 pounds.
According to my father, they selected some names for me and then presented them in front of my grandmother. Among Asad, Rizwan, Shohzad and John, she chose Asad to be kept as my name.

"When the people used to come and visit, I would become happy and it made me more proud that I have got 'twins'... You know everyone does not give birth to 'twins'." -Said my mother (Azadar)

Unlike most of the children, I was not naughty. My mom says "I hardly remember any naughtiness done my Asad." But I am stubborn and hot-tempered though... In the early years of my life my stubbornness and my anger always remained at their peaks but now i have changed a lot.
I remember and everyone tells me that when I was a child of two years old, I used to bang my head on the floor and the walls when angry. Well the situation solved eventually and now I have very less anger problems.

I have been seen playing alone most of the time with my blocks.
"You used to wake up early in the morning and everyday you would take out your favorite set of blocks and played with it until someone would stop you from." My grandmother tells me when we talk about old times.
When I was 1-4 years old i like playing with blocks. My parents gifted a set of blocks which I liked the most. It was just perfect to attract a creative kid who loves creating new things as he spends his days on this earth. These blocks were not the only things i liked. I loved playing with balloons, I used to pretend that the balloon is my pet cat and then played with it because my parents never allow me to own a pet but i just love them. Jumping from one couch to another was one of my favourite hobbies.

During my childhood, I loved to eat zarda (a traditional dish that is made up of sweet rice) but now i just don't like it's taste.

My mother told me that I didn't knew how to hold a pencil, they tried everything to make me hold my pencil in a nicer and proper way but I wouldn't. But then my nursery teacher Miss. Sara advised my parents to let me play with play dough... This really worked but now the problem was that I won't stop playing with this tool, so my mother never bought me play dough. :(



--MEMORIES--
My childhood was spent in Karachi. Well I've had a lot of memories with my siblings and cousins, although i was ignored by them most of the times. Some of them are remembered by me and some of them are not.

My mom told me that we went to Abbotabad, Muree, Lahore, Islamabad and Gilgit when I was only one year old. Our vacations were soo important to us that we left my twin sister in Karachi with my phuppo. We had a very good vacation without my poor sister.

Another memory was a trip to Mallam Jabba with my cousins and parents in 2004. I must say that it was the best trip of my life with the thrilling moments to the most funniest and joyful moments. We hired a private bus which could contain all of us. Some of the seats of the bus were removed and on that area we kept a Mattress. We reached the beautiful hills in at least a week going through some cities which lied in our way. The conversations, games and all the activities can never be forgotten by my mind.
When we neared the hills of Malam jabba, our bus suddenly slipped to the end of the hill which was about eleven thousand feet high... You can imagine the horror and thrill going on in our minds at that time because we had no hope to live. But soon the hotel sent their van and we all remained safe. Thanks to God :)

Other memories were not any trips or travellings we did but the games we used to play.Most of them were even invented by us Gaaon Gaaon (a game in which we acted like we are living in a village. Keeping all the rules and traditions of Pakistani villages. To make a house, we used to put some chairs and then covered them with an ajrak.
Other games were Ghar Ghar (same kind, but the family used to be modern and urban). We also used to play Chor Police in which there used to be a team of thieves and police members. The police had to spot the thieves and kill them.

I went to Al-Murtaza School (AMS) which is located in PECHS Karachi. From nursery to grade 7 I have studied in this school. This ex-school of mine has four branches i.e. Pre-Primary Branch (from nursery to kindergarten), Junior Branch (from grade one to 5 for boys and from grade 1 to 3 for girls), Senior Girls Branch (grade 4 to 10 only for girls) and then finally comes Senior Boys Branch (grade 6 to 10 only for boys).

I started going to school from the age of 3.5 years. Well I don't really remember my first day at school but my mom tells me that I never used to cry while going to school. But obviously the first day was different than routine days because I went to a place where I had no contact with my mother for almost 5 hours. "You didn't cry, but you hesitated when you were going inside the school." My mother said.

Going to school was not so hard for me because I always had my twin sister Mariam in the same class as I was. So I used to be calm"¦ My teacher in first year of school were pretty good and friendly (everyone has friendly teachers in nursery) but my kindergarten was worst. I got bad teachers, bad handwriting and I was not so good in studying as I am now. I could not even hold a pencil properly.
In the parent teacher meeting, my teacher and my parents discussed me in a detail. She suggested my parents to make me play with clay/ play dough which would help me make my fingers flexible and hold a pencil properly. So my parents did what the teacher told them to and found out that this really helps.

After passing my years In the Pre-Primary branch of the school, I was shifted to the junior branch of my school where studies were even harder. But I managed to make score at least average mark of the class.

Grade two was one of my favorite years in my school life. With the best class teacher someone can have and the best activities someone can do. My class teacher Ms. Neelam who taught me English and Social Studies was also my favorite teacher because she always used to encourage and help us in our difficulties. And I believe that a teacher should be more like a facilitator than a lecturer.

After passing grade 2, I was promoted to grade 3 with my sister. This year was just normal. Not so strict, not so difficult and not so good. I improved my academic perfomance though.

Grade four turned out very lucky but different for me. Now my sister had moved to another branch of my school and I was shuffled with other students in my batch.
But I boosted my skills. From an average child, I went towards the high achievers.
This continued in grade five too.

Grade five was my last year in the Junior Branch. Next, I was promoted to the Senior Boys Branch to study my secondary classes i.e. 6-10.
The sixth level of studies grew even difficult. Now I had to study English, Urdu, Islamic Studies, Social Studies, Science, Maths, Arabic and Sindhi. So my percentage fell down from 95% to 78% in my exams. But I managed to restore my position in grade 7 which also had the same subjects but they became tougher and i got used to them.

My school offered metric system from Agha Khan Board but I wanted to study from Cambridge system. I started going to Discovery Centre SmartSchool a branch by Beaconhouse School System (BSS).
This school is from grade one till eighth and then they promote you to the Defence Campus of BSS Karachi. So this is my first and last year at DCSS but I believe that It has been proved as a wonderful year once again with the best teachers, friends and activities.

I am satisfied with who I am and what I do. I have lived a very happy and wonderful life in which my parents (also include my tayas because they are like my parents) have always provided me with all the things I wanted.

If I talk about my future, there are a lot of things I have to do... First of all I have to complete my studies and enter a good international university of business and then I want to become a businessman and expand our family business.
Apart from these goals, I want to open a wildlife centre and also work for the environment because we have been so busy with earning money that we forgot what we are doing to our planet.

I will always make sure I make my country proud and I promise that I will never lose my identity like some people who go abroad, live there for a couple of years and then forget their homeland... Whatever happens in my country, I will always be a proud Pakistani!