A decade after Karina Chikitova, Mowgli’s five-year-old girl, survived alone in a bear- and wolf-infested Siberian forest for nearly two weeks, she has revealed that she aspires to become a doctor.
Karina made headlines around the world in 2014 for clinging to her loyal pup Naida for warmth.
The little girl slept on a bed of tall grass and ate wild berries to miraculously survive after getting lost in the remote Russian taiga.
The dog finally went to ask for help and save Karina after 12 days and nights in the wild.
Shortly afterward, a statue was erected in honor of her and her half-breed in the regional capital, Yakutsk, the coldest city in the world.
Since then a popular children’s book has been written about the girl and the major film “Karina” has also been 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 in prime time on Russian state television, she revealed a change of direction, abandoning her dancing career despite having real talent and eager to focus on medicine as a doctor.
Karina Chikitova (pictured) made headlines around the world in 2014 for clinging to her loyal pup Naida for warmth.
He gave an interview on the television program Let Them Speak on Russia’s Channel 1.
Karina revealed that she now remembers nothing of her amazing survival experience as she erased it from her memory.
They asked him: ‘Don’t you remember anything?’
“No,” she replied.
But she showed a photo of her dog.
“This is my dog Naida,” he said.
‘She was with me in the forest, but I no longer remember how I played with her, (how she saved me)…’
Her first memory is the first grade in school, which in Russia is 7 years old, she said on the Russian Channel 1 television program Let Them Speak, after she was flown six time zones west to Moscow for the interview. .
‘I no longer study at the Yakutsk ballet school.
Despite the intensity of the ordeal, she says she remembers very little of it.
Naida (pictured, left) helped the girl survive her ordeal.
“I moved to Arylakh… and I study in another school.”
They asked him: ‘What do you want to be?’
He received warm applause from the audience when he responded: “A doctor.”
But the Mowgli girl insisted that she did not like his fame.
The TV presenter said: ‘Look at you, 14 years old, you’re already a legend. You are a star.
‘There is a monument to you…
‘Is this how you feel?’
She replied: ‘No, I don’t like the attention.’
She was a great 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 realizing
In 2014, Karina, from the native Siberian Evenks ethnic group, had followed her father into the dangerous forest, but he did not realize that she had followed him.
The mongrel finally left her in her makeshift bed of tall grass after nine nights to call for help.
When they finally found her, her rescuer Artyom Borisov said: “She was sitting deep in the grass, completely silent.
‘I didn’t really notice her.
‘She saw me and stretched her arms forward.
‘I picked her up, she was so small, so light, like fluff.
‘She didn’t have shoes.
‘His face, legs and arms were bitten to blood (by mosquitoes). I was scared to death.
Karina is now 14 years old and says she wants to be a doctor
The little girl was rescued after spending almost two weeks alone
Her rescuer Artyom Borisov (pictured) admitted he could barely hold back his tears when he found her.
‘He immediately asked for water and food and burst into tears.
“The truth is that I couldn’t hold back my tears either.”
Later little Karina said: ‘It was Naida who rescued me. I was really scared.
“But when we were going to sleep I hugged her and we were warm together.”
When Karina was reunited with the dog, her first words to her faithful pet were: ‘Why did you leave me?’
The dog’s action in finding its way back to the family’s village almost certainly saved the girl’s life by giving rescuers confidence that she was still alive.