I spent my childhood in the village of Bathua, in Hathazari, Chittagong, Bangladesh. We later moved to Chittagong because my father set up his jewellery business there.

City life was quite different from the kind of life we lived in the village. I studied in the village primary school till we moved to Chittagong, where I enrolled in the Lamabazar Primary School. But I completed my matriculation from Chittagong Collegiate School.

I was an active scout and in 1952 I even attended the World Scouts Jamboree in Canada as part of the Pakistan contingent.

But it would not be fair if I spoke about my childhood without mentioning anything about my days in the village.

We are seven brothers and two sisters. So you can imagine the kind of fun we had growing up. We were constantly fighting and pulling each other’s leg. We used to go swimming when the elders would be taking their siesta. As a child, I loved climbing trees and playing games.

My father was very strict about our studies. He would ensure that we were at our study desks right after the maghrib (evening prayers). He was a pious man and always asked us to pray five times a day, but I would invariably miss the fajir namaaz (morning prayers), which, of course, he did not like. But he made sure that we fasted during the holy month of Ramzaan.

As a child, I was fascinated by the way the pheriwalas (vendors) tried selling their wares. I was good at mimicry, so I would often mimic them.

I was naughty but I never defied my parents and grandparents. Though we stayed in a joint family, we were not that close to our grandparents as we were taught to respect them and maintain a distance.

My message to all of you is, enjoy your life for you get to live only once. But observe what you don’t like around you, make a note of these things and try to fix them when you grow up.