The Miserable Cries
Soumya Desai 6A
It was a bright sunny day with the white clouds flying high in the sky. I had just started drawing a sketch of the apple tree in front of my house, when I heard a child’s faint cry. Ignoring it the first time, I continued my newly attained hobby. Weird cries kept coming for the next few days and curiosity got the better of me. As there were hardly any young children in my neighborhood, I started tracing the sounds and was surprised to find that it was coming from my new neighbor’s house. A middle-aged lady had recently shifted there, and I had assumed she was living alone. A bit excited to know that she had kids too, I went out to further explore. I rang the bell, and the lady opened the door. With a bright smile on her face, she welcomed me into the house. Just as I was passing by the living room, I saw a little girl, younger than me, working in the kitchen. She was wearing rugged clothes and had bright red scars on her hands. After a brief introduction, I returned home and shared the incident with my mother.
For the next few days, I kept hearing strange sobbing and moaning noises from the house. One day while passing near her house, we were surprised to see a seven- eight-year-old boy cleaning the backyard. I tried interacting but he shied away. After bribing him with a 10 rupee note he disclosed “My family is very poor. They sold me to the lady for five thousand rupees. The lady promised to give me food only if I do her work properly.” I was taken aback.
After discussing with my mother, we decided to inform our aunt who works for an NGO called ‘Smile foundation’ for welfare of children. They then informed the police who after initial reluctance installed a CCTV camera in our premises to closely watch people moving in and out of the lady’s house. There were few children from poor background and some men captured on the camera going in and out of the house. As few men looked suspicious of some ‘wanted criminals’, they decided to interrogate the lady. Just as they were about to ring the bell, they heard a girl sobbing and pleading for food while the lady said sternly “I can yet see food stains on the dishes and dirt at the corners of all rooms. Why did I buy you from your parents? You don’t even do your work properly.” The girl started weeping louder and we heard a loud sound of a whip. We rang the bell and the lady was taken by surprise. After a thorough search of her house, she was taken for interrogation. Initial denial later led to confession on further probing. She confessed being part of a large nexus which involved child trafficking. She gave some leads which led to a much larger nexus many of whom were caught in next few months and put behind bars. The children were sent to a foster care and were later enrolled in school.
I was so delighted that I could help those tender souls acquire their right to education.
My Sorceress Superhero Day
Riya Soni 6B
I woke up feeling groggy. I was burning the candle at both ends - I had only slept for four hours because I had a challenging test at school. Something did not feel right, though. I could not move my body as effortlessly as usual. It is just fatigue, I told myself. I was determined to pass the test with flying colours and did not want to waste any more time being unnerved by this. I decided to freshen up and start revising. However, when I walked into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror, I was horrified. I had transformed into a….
Shape shifting sorceress! I wanted to brush my teeth and get ready for my school and when I saw myself in the mirror, my heart missed a beat, as I thought of toothpaste, and I transformed into one. My mind was going out of control, and I was transforming into things that I was thinking in my mind. I was bewildered with this topsy - turvy transformation. Was this a dream or for real?
I had a big exam today; I was so disoriented. Then, I thought of an idea, all the superhero movies were flashing in my mind and then there was a knock at the door, it was mom, calling me for breakfast.in a moment I clone myself while I tried to control my powers and let my clone attend my test. I was feeling like Wonder Woman, who was faster than Mercury and stronger than Hercules.
While I was feeling exceptionally strong, I was teleported to an invisible spaceship which was bigger than I had ever imagined. Then I heard a voice that said “Welcome to Avalonia, the paradise of magic and great powers. I have a mission for you, where you must make the world free from crime and all things that disturb the peace of our environment on Earth. It was awe-inspiring that there are so many unknown powers and people to protect our planet. Just then I was offered a piece of paper with my task and in a blink of an eye I was in my house and the first thing I did was reverse the time of this ongoing pandemic of Covid – 19 and make the world a better ,greener and a happier place by cloning myself into many different invisible workforce to help the farmers, workers and other helpers to achieve their goals to make this world a better place to live and breathe .
Ragini Ramanthan 6C
An innocent child was sitting in a beautiful garden. She was playing with her small toys. The toys were a made-up, imaginary world. There was a hero and a villain. The hero beats the villain, but what if the hero were the villain? I shall explain that in a moment, but for now, all you need to know is that I was that little child.
Suddenly, the world around me changed. My hands and legs were longer. The flowers had dried out, looking brown and motionless. The trees were leaning, no longer standing tall and erect. My dolls had been replaced by video games. I saw hundreds of books a few kilometres away. I didn’t understand at first, but looking back I realise that the bad decision was right in front of me, but the good one was far away. Back then, I ran to the books. Just as I picked up one, they all disappeared and once again, my surroundings changed. The trees had disappeared. A big factory replaced them. I was wearing a suit and holding a notepad. I was the owner of the factory. I saw the production of all sorts of things in the building. It was successful. I was successful. Soon, the factory changed into an old age home. I was old and grey. The glimpse of my life that I had seen seemed to have gone well. But what is the cost? Nature. At the cost of nature. The books were made out of trees. The trees were cut down to make space for the factory. Nature sacrificed herself for me, and I couldn’t bring her back. All I did was fall to the ground and weep.
The hero is a villain in this sense as for the hero’s success, someone or something else falls. The hero is a villain for letting them fall, yet a still hero for pulling someone else up. Everyone, I suppose, is a hero of their own story, yet a villain in someone else’s.