Libre Magazine

It takes all kinds to make a school… All five fingers can never be the same. We tend to categorize them as the long ones, short ones, fat ones, thin ones. Other than that, we put people in a color chart, and title them black, white, yellow, and brown. All different races, colors, castes and creed, all from different backgrounds, coming to achieve the same purpose. Education.

They use every possible means to reach the school, to adhere to the rules. Formally, their intent is education, easing the minds of business minded fathers and soothing the nerves of ever fretting mothers. Informally, who knows why each one comes , at such a religious pace, to school. Some come to escape being married off to some old, bride buying fart, who’s already got three wives with seven children each. Others to escape the pressures of home life. Yet others come to loiter around, kill time, make mischief..*their parents live in the vain hope that school will tame them*. And lastly, few , very very few, actually come to study, to evolve, attain knowledge.

Yet no one knows how much this education is worth, and if it will get them anywhere at all. Hope compels them to try!

Every school is a different world behind its four boundaries. The smells tantalize the taste buds of many different kinds, all depending on which scent they pick up, and choose to take heed to! Mischief makers sniff around for a chance to make trouble. Truants snuffle out ways to escape entering the gates of no return (for a few hours anyway!) Others are attracted by the greasy smells of biryani (rice and meat cooked together, flavored with saffron and all spice and lots of other yummy ingredients), and French fries and kebabs wafting from the café, while anorexic girls are repulsed by it. Some follow the trailing uplifting scent of freedom, that is so faint, but glows ever so slightly in the dark smog of ignorance, only very few hold on to the yarn of liberation and find ways to express themselves, spiritual uplifting is sought in the manner of community service to ease the guilt-ridden conscience of those who haven’t been so regular with their prayers lately, and so find solace in giving back to community.

The world comprises of have’s and have not’s. Black and white. These two apply in every aspect, be it personality, character, morality, monetary, belief, success, modesty, popularity, family, and values. You either have it, or you don’t. Black or white.

We enter school life, a transitory period, with our own respective black and whites, which are given a chance to change vice versa from their initial state. Three things can happen. Black can become white, and white can become black. Meaning to say, there can be interchanging in the things you once had. For example, you maybe rich today, but poor in the years to come. Black can increase on one side or white can increase elsewhere, creating an imbalance in nature’s well balanced tightrope. For example, your status in the world could lean more towards the categories of the ‘have’s’, or the other way around. Or there can be no change at all, meaning to say you could remain as you are, right at square one, just like you started off.

No matter which way the scale tips, the black remains black and white remains white.

The yin and yang of life.

Once school is over, stumbling through those 11 to 13 years, comes the fork fate places in our path. Familiar faces shall soon be gone, there will be new schools and new environments to adjust to. It is up to us to choose the good from the bad, and implement it.

We will all be have not’s in a way, deprived of each other’s company, experiences we might have shared. And we will reminisce wistfully and sigh, every time we drink hot tea and have hot fries, we will think about the time we all soaked in the rain, and the way the thunderous sky wept in torrents, lashing us with rain and cold wind, pelting us with her grievances, purging herself of all the filth we exposed her to. And how all was right in the world again, if only for a while, when Mr. Sun shone through, calming down the great big canopy, making her flash her deepest blue, maybe even a rainbow or two.

So time will journey us by, and snatch away our blankets of security and comfort, leaving us clawing at it, and prizing it from our fingernails. And we will stumble about looking for it, with eyes never drying, the grief never ending, the urge to go back an endless thirst. Fate tipped us out of our cradles, and left us on the cold grey asphalt, while grown ups with ill intent leer at us, and try to manipulate us, knowing we are still wet behind the ears.

Our friends move on to where the grass looks greener, people roam freely, scantily clad despite the cold weather, whether dark or light skinned, but western minded in nature. It makes no difference, limbs fly akimbo, askew, causing the damage they deem as goodness, the warmth of beer rushing down their throats, the heady sensation of the white powder they inject in their veins. We shake our heads and watch on, as these prized fools continue to destroy their brain cells, and prepare to be the new generation, one more ignorant than the last. **

We have not’s sit and thank our blessings for our values, and for being treated as first class citizens, not directly under foreign oppression. We hold our heads up with pride and stand firm on our justly won land, sow as we have been taught, and hold ourselves responsible for what we reap.

Surely, yes, we have corruption and inner conflicts, and heartlessness sometimes. Surely, we have misguided souls who got lost somewhere along the way. Surely, we grumble and complain, and mutter under our breaths when having to submit to our elders, old fashioned ways. But secretly, no matter how annoying, we are glad to be amongst our own, in a culture we have been taught, against which contradictory beliefs are offensive. And we sigh with contentment, after a hearty spicy flavorful meal, and think, that we have not’s are so much better off!!

Author’s Note:

** I hope nothing in this specific paragraph was offensive to any race or any culture, and if it is, please forgive my ignorance, and point it out to me. The idea is not to offend anyone; it is simply a thought that flowed as I wrote. Oversight is possible in the rush to jot down creativity. Forgive me if I made a mistake, it was not intentional.