A decade after Mowgli girl Karina Chikitova, then five, survived alone in a Siberian forest infested with bears and wolves for almost two weeks, she has revealed she aims to become a doctor.
Karina made headlines around the world in 2014 for clinging to her loyal puppy Naida for warmth.
The little girl slept on a bed of long grass and ate wild berries to miraculously stay alive after getting lost in the remote Russian taiga.
The dog finally went to summon help and save Karina after 12 days and nights in the wild.
A statue was soon afterwards erected honouring her and her mongrel in regional capital Yakutsk, the world’s coldest city.
Since then a popular children’s book has been written about the girl, and a major film ‘Karina’ was also released.
She won a Mini Miss beauty pageant, and was accepted into the world’s northernmost professional ballet school.
But now aged 14, and interviewed primetime on Russian state TV, she revealed a change of direction, ditching her dancing career despite a real talent, and keen to focus on medicine as a doctor.
Karina Chikitova (pictured) made headlines around the world in 2014 for clinging to her loyal puppy Naida for warmth
She gave an interview on the TV show Let Them Speak on Russian Channel 1
Karina revealed she now has no memory of any of her astonishing survival ordeal – having blanked it from her memory.
She was asked: ‘You don’t remember anything?’
‘No,’ she replied.
But she showed a picture of her dog.
‘This is my dog Naida,’ she said.
‘She was with me in the forest, but I no longer remember how I played with her, [how she saved me]…’
Her earliest memory is first grade at school, which in Russia is aged 7, she said on TV show Let Them Speak on Russian Channel 1, after she was flown six time zones west to Moscow for the interview.
‘I don’t study at the Yakutsk ballet school anymore.
Despite the intensity of the ordeal, she says she remembers very little of it
Naida (pictured, left) helped the little girl survive her terrible ordeal
‘I moved to Arylakh….and I study at another school.’
She was asked: ‘What do you want to be?’
She received warm applause from the audience as she replied: ‘A doctor.’
But the Mowgli girl insisted she did not like her fame.
The TV presenter said: ‘Look at you, 14 years old, you’re already a legend. You’re a star.
‘There is a monument to you…
‘Is that how you feel?’
She replied: ‘No, I don’t like the attention.’
She was a keen ballet dancer, and studied at the Yakutsk ballet school before leaving that world behind
The girl said she got lost after following her father into a forest without him realising it
In 2014, Karina – from the native Siberian Evenks ethnic group – had followed her father into the dangerous forest, but he did not realise she had trailed him.
The mongrel finally left her in her makeshift bed of long grass after nine nights to summon help.
When she was finally found, her rescuer Artyom Borisov said: ‘She was sitting deep in deep grass, completely silent.
‘I didn’t actually notice her.
‘She saw me and stretched her arms forward.
‘I picked her up, she was so tiny, so light, like fluff.
‘She didn’t have shoes on.
‘Her face, legs and arms were bitten to blood (by mosquitos). She was dead scared.
Karina is now 14 years old, and says she want to be a doctor
The little girl was rescued after spending nearly two weeks on her own
Her rescuer Artyom Borisov (pictured) admitted he could barely hold back his tears when he found her
‘Straight away she asked for water and food, and burst into tears.
‘To be honest I could hardly hold back tears, too.’
Later little Karina said: ‘It was Naida who rescued me. I was really, really scared.
‘But when we were going to sleep I hugged her, and together we were warm.’
When Karina was reunited with the dog, her first words to her loyal pet were: ‘Why did you leave me?’
The dog’s action in finding her way back to the family’s village almost certainly saved the child’s life by giving rescuers confidence she was still alive.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .