Madhavi+Subramaniam


 * Walking in Injustice**

Today has been a long, boring day. Our teacher, Mrs. Nrets, has been reading Martin Luther King’s speech to us. Now she was reading it for at least the tenth time. I was desperately trying to keep my drooping eyes open. //Ugh, so tired!// In a dramatic voice Mrs. Nrets said, “I have a dream.” She repeated it, emphasizing the word ‘dream’. Now I was literally prying open my eyes. “I have a dream.” At that minute, I started to nod off in a deep sleep. I guess my dream was mixed up with what my friend had said earlier to me and the words, “I have a dream.” Sinking into the tendrils of sleep, I suddenly found myself on the streets of Chennai, India. I looked down, and saw that in my dream I was wearing all white and had pale skin. I was on the dark, cracked roads of Chennai searching the streets for anything familiar. I didn’t understand Tamil, Hindi, //or// Telugu which are the three main languages spoken in India. That was bad. Without any communication I couldn’t go anywhere. Of course, this was just a dream, in dreams you already know things. So with that thought I started walking toward a store that said பருப்புகள் மற்றும் வாசனை (Nuts and Spices). Quite a store it was, with all different types of nuts, spices, and grains. I searched the store with my hungry eyes and suddenly noticed something horrible. In fact, it was so horrible that I wanted it to stop it right away. What I saw were two boys, the same age, fighting over a package of cashews. Okay, that might not seem so bad, but there’s more to it. One boy had on a very nice green Kurta Pyjama with a crystal encrusted border while the other child practically had on rags. Finally the boy in green said, “நீங்கள் அருவருப்பாை னபயன், இந்த என் உணவு தான்! (You filthy boy, this is my food!” Obviously, the boy in rags had to let go of the cashews. I kept watching. As I observed, I saw that the boy in rags was quite skinny, with his ribs so prominent that you could count them easily. On the other hand, the boy in green was already with his family, ripping open the pack of cashews, spilling them carelessly on the floor. I guess the boy in rags had seen the cashews on the floor too, for he leaned over, and picked them up. They were already covered in ants, so I assumed that he was going to throw them away. Instead, he inched them closer and closer to his moth. //What!// He was going to eat them! Suddenly, I felt a surge of anger building up in my chest! That rich boy could have anything he wanted, yet the boy in rags was eating off the floor! The cashews were about to go into his mouth, the ants still on them, when I yelled, “Wait!” I didn’t care if couldn’t understand me. I didn’t care that everyone was staring at me. But I did care when the boy in green started laughing. I didn’t have any idea what he was laughing at, but I definitely didn’t like it! I leapt over to where he was standing, swung my fist and smashed it into his maddening face. It felt great! I soon realized that it hadn’t felt so good on the kid’s face. He tightened his chubby fists and locked eyes with me. //What is he doing?// I thought. Oops, bad mistake, he was simply distracting me, waiting for the right time to hammer me. Before he could do that though, the boy in rags spoke in rapid Hindi (at least I thought it was Hindi). He said, “ बंद करो, वह सिर्फ मुझे मदद कर रहा था! (Stop, she was just trying to help me!)” All of a sudden, a giant load of guilt piled up on my shoulders. This boy in rags could get into a whole lot of trouble for what he just did. At first I had a thought of just punching the kid again when I remembered that this was all a dream! I tried to will myself to wake up. Bad results. All it had done was make me more desperate. I didn’t want to be here anymore! It was just too terrible! I found myself shaking all over and immediately stopped. This was beyond my realm of scariness. I have never dealt with something like this before. Exploring my mind for anything, //anything// I could use to help me here. It was like someone had just cleaned my brain. You know like when someone cleans your room, and you can’t find anything. That is exactly what happened with my head! Nothing! Nothing at all was left! I did the only thing I could do, I ran out of the building! I was a fast runner, I could sprint a mile in 4 minutes. I was starting to have hope when I heard someone bark my name! //How did they know my name?// I thought! “You there, in the white. Nandini! Stop right there!” I wanted to keep running, to free myself from this horrifying dream, to pump my heart, to work my lungs! I wanted to run, and I would never stop. That is, until I tripped over a stand selling coconuts. I fell down, bruising both my knees and my elbows badly. After making a full check of my elbows and knees, I slowly stood up and examined the man selling the coconuts. He was pale, with white hair and white clothes. He had on white socks and white gloves. In fact, I could say that he looked somewhat like me. //Who could it be?// He looked a bit like I did. Maybe he’s having the same dream as I am. The first word that pops into my head is, AWESOME! I wanted him to talk to me and explain what was going on here. So I said, “Um, hi!” H turned around, saw me, and looked at my clothes. “You’re having the same dream as I am.” He said in a low, friendly voice. “Yes sir, I am. I sorda want you to explain to me what just happened in that store, Nuts and Spices.” He raised his eyebrows at me and said, “Well sweetie, that’s what we call the CASTE system. The CASTE system is a very unfair structure that puts people in different castes or classes.” Now I was getting really confused. Why would people care about someone’s class? “What do you mean?” I asked. The man sighed. “ I mean that people in higher castes are treated better than people in lower castes, like that boy in rags.” Now I was actually getting it. “Oh! So you mean that the boy in the green Kurta Pyjama was in a higher class ?” “Yes, you got it.” Well, I understood, but now I realized just how unfair it was. I wanted to stop it, unfortunately, this was just a dream. Me stopping it wouldn’t actually do anything in the real world. Before I could ask another question the man looked up in the sky and seemed to hear something. “Oh, it’s time for me to wake up!” He floated up into the air until he wasn’t more than a dot. //Oh, how I wish to wake up too!// I thought. Then suddenly, I heard a voice, and it sounded like Mrs. Nrets. //Uh oh,// I thought, //I’m in trouble.// I willed myself to wake up and like a miracle, I floated up into the air. I was slowly gliding up, and up, and up. Until, everything just disappeared and I was in Mrs. Nrets classroom. My head was laying on the wooden desk, my eyes just opening. She was asking me a question. “What was the point of Martin Luther King’s speech?” She said in a stern voice. She sounded annoyed, so I guessed that she had asked many times already. I took a deep breath and thought about it before I answer the question. I knew the answer, only because of my dream, definitely not because of Mrs. Nrets. “The point of Martin Luther King’s speech was to let people know that all people should have equal rights and be treated fairly. People should not feel that they are better than anyone else just because they were born a certain way. “ By the time I was finished, I knew that everyone was impressed with me. Even Mrs. Nrets was staring at me in awe. It was silent until the school bell rang. I couldn’t wait to go, I had so much to tell my parents. -Madhavi Subramaniam Grade 5 Saint Mary’s Hall School