A PECK ON THE CHEEK

           This is the story of a girl called Amutha. She was 8 years old in 2003. I am her dad, Ragu. I am an author who writes many famous novels. One of my favourite novels is about a baby girl who was forced to be abandoned by her mother who was a Sri Lankan refugee. Amutha’s mom is a homemaker. She has a grandfather, Mr. Soomu who is comitee member in the Rameshwaram refugee camp. She has two younger brothers Nickillen and Suresh. Well, this seems to be a happy family, but only until the truth was hidden.

            It was 2004. Half a year flew by so fast. It was Amutha’s 9^th birthday. Her mom asked me if it was okay to let her know the truth. Wasn’t she a bit too young? I took Amutha to the temple that day, then to Marina Beach. Amutha was running in circles around me on the fine sand of the beach. The sun shone so bright, making the sand particles shine like diamonds.

            Finally the truth was out. I plucked all my courage to say that Amutha was adopted. At first she laughed in disbelief and then tears started to roll down her soft cheecks. She ran far away from me. I brought her home. She was moody the whole day. As dawn was coming to an end, Priya was preparing dinner. Nickillen and Suresh were in their room. Grandpa was on his rocking chair browsing through some books. Amutha was on my lap as I was swinging on the built in home swing. It was a very quiet and dull environment when out of the blue Amutha asked, “Who are my real parents Appa?”

            I was silent. My dad then explained, “I don’t know who your dad was but your mom was a refugee at my Rameshwaram camp. All the refugees that came in tiny boats from Lanka were in total despair. Your mom was conceiving then. As I was explaining to them some of the rules, your mom suddenly had her labour pain. A few weeks after that she had to go back to Ceylon because that was her homeland. Therefore, she left you at the Rameshwaram Kids Care Centre. Her name was…….M.D.S….Ah, yes! M.D. Shyama.” I then said, “It was only her one finger that touched you through that window. The only form of bond the mother could have with the child. With tears in her eyes and cuts in her heart she ran away from the innocent infant.” Amutha knew in a moment that those lines were from my novel. My favourite one. The following day was a Monday. Amutha went to school but did not come back. My sister Laxmi came to my house looking worried saying that Damendran, her son, was missing too. True enough Amutha and Damen were on a bus to Chennai in search of her mother, Shyama. I managed to find them and Amutha got some serious firing from her mom.

            From that day onwards, Amutha was being rude to her mom. Amutha was begging me and Priya to take her to Sri Lanka. Finally, I came home with three tickets to Lanka. Amutha hugged both of us. Nickel and Suresh did not know our purpose to Lanka.

            Upon our arrival at Colombo we met a friend who was going to help us. He was a Singhales man. His name was Nimarande, also known as Niran. Amutha went sight seeing everywhere. After two days we went to Jaffna. Unfortunately, that day the troops asked everyone to evacuate the area because they were going to put a bomb there. As everyone was walking in a line, some driving trucks, I, Priya, Amutha and Niran were in the search of Shyama. We found a lady by the name of Shyama. At that moment the bomb blasting started. The lady said she too had a daughter but it was not Amutha and she was not M.D. Shyama. Then the lady quickly ran away.

            Then we went to Kandy. We went to Niran’s house a bit deep in the village. Amutha went exploring the village when she saw some girls in army wear pointing a gun at her. She ran back home, crying. The same time I and Niran went for a walk and some Tamil soldiers caught us and almost shot us. Luckily I shouted some of my poetry lines in Tamil to make the soldiers believe that we were Tamils. The leader of the troop realized that I was a well known poet. The troop leader, Selvam, said that it was not save for me to hang out with Niran who was a Singhales. I explained that Niran was nice and that Niran understood Tamil. I then told Selvam my purpose to Sri Lanka. Selvam looked surprised and said that M.D. Shyama was his sister. She was now in the army. Selvam promised to bring his sister one day to meet me. I and Niran went home and broke the good news to Amutha. She was excited.

            I am a good author. Niran then recomended to me that I have a small show. My fans in Kandy would love it. So on Tuesday it was my speech at a hall. Amutha and her mom went out across the street to the bench because they found my speech kind of boring. Amutha then saw a man on a wheel chair reading a book. She went to talk to him and they started to have a conversation about the book he was reading. Then he left to go across the street but he forgot his book. Amutha took his book and ran to give it to him when suddenly he blasted. He was a suicide bomber. She had a few scares and was in a state of shock. Her mother grabbed her and everyone started to scatter.

            The next day, Amutha, I, Priya and Niran went to a street at Kandy to finally meet Shyama. We were waiting but no one came. It was about time to leave but Amutha was reluctant to leave. Suddenly, some soldiers came and started hiding. Priya called her to leave but she was stubborn. A gun was shot and bombs started to explode. I took my family to hide. As they we running a stone cracked my glasses. Priya got a gunshot in her arm. Amutha had many terrible scares and a huge one on her forehead. She was terrified. She hated the place. Niran quickly came in his car and fetched us home. Amutha had 3 stiches on her head.

            The next day we were leaving for India. We thanked Niran for his help and bid goodbye. As we were leaving for the airport, Amutha asked me to just stop by the street again. We got down and waited. As we were about to leave, an auto came there and stopped. Selvam got down. After him was a lady. It was Shyama. She came nearer to us. It started to rain. Amutha looked at her and said, “I have got a few questions for you.” “Can I start?” Shyama said okay.

“Why did you leave me?” asked Amutha. Shyama started to tear, “the situation was such.” Then Amutha continued, “do you love me?” Shyama cried and grabbed Amutha. She kissed Amutha and said “Yes of course, of course!” Amutha too started to cry and asked Shyama to come to India with her. “It is so much more peaceful there,” she said. Shyama just could not go. Shyama turned to go back to the auto. “Amma!” Amutha shouted. “Amma, don’t go!” Shyama turned and said, “don’t call me that, I can’t go.” She the ran back to Amutha and gave her a hug and kiss. Amutha gave her a scrapbook she made for her. Shyama took it and ran back to the auto. Amutha could only watch the auto go out of sight.

            I then hugged Amutha and said, “Never mind Amutha. We still love you equally.” Priya kissed Amutha and asked, “You do love us right?” Amutha smiled and said yes. We looked at each other and smiled.      

KANNATHIL MUTHAMITTAL 

ARBEIT MACHT FREI

Based on a short documentary I viewed entitled ‘Hitler, Jews and Genocide’, I could clearly see that the Nazis in Germany of the 1930s were an unfortunate breed of the human species as they were grasped tightly in the hands of Satan. When the Nazis came to power during that time, they severely tortured and killed millions of Jews. This was known as the holocaust. The holocaust was the systematic execution of as many Jews as possible. This process was mainly done by the SS under the supervision of Heinrich Himmler. The mastermind behind this atrocious event was the greatest dictator of all times, Sir Adolf Hitler.

Hitler despised the Jewish community for he regarded them as people of an impure race. Whoever whom he assumed was not the so called pure Aryans the Germans considered themselves, he wished to execute. I think the problem was not whether the Jews were pure or impure. The thing is that Jews did not believe that Jesus was their messenger and also they managed to pull through smoothly during the Great Depression when all others were in a terrible financial state. I think the issue with Hitler was that he simply had green eyes. Jealousy had over powered his mind, making him make a rash decision by framing the Jews as dishonest, money lending, communist people.

He placed the Jews in concentration camps where they were deprived of their individuality instead they were given numbers. It was sad to see people being deprived of their own names and given numbers as though they were some sort of object being labeled. In 1941, the pitiful Jews were evacuated to ghettos where families squeezed into one room and there was scarce supply of food and water. When I heard the pain in a child’s cry, it sent shivers down my spine. People who were caught smuggling food, risked public execution. I was pretty amazed though by the fact that a little Jewish kid was dropping out so many vegetables from his pants when he got caught. I wonder where all that space came from? I guess when you are desperate for something you will try and get the most of it by hook or by crook.

The Germans realized that shooting the Jews down was a failure as it was a slow and messy process. They then came up with the most brilliant idea ever. They gassed the Jews. Honestly speaking, hats off to their master plan as it was a job well done. The chambers, the cyanide, the crematorium, everything was perfectly prepared. It was only terrifying when the narrator mentioned, “there were to be machines to kill human beings by the millions”. I have heard of machines designed to kill fishes and chickens by the millions but not humans. An inhuman technology of the 20^th century it was to kill the human race by the millions. Why? Why was Hitler such an animal? If I had the chance to put some serious sense into his head I would tell him that there was only one race that God created and that is the Human race. There is also only one religion that any God would want us to follow and that is the religion of Love.

The time for resettlement arrived and Jews all over Europe were scurrying about to get to resettlement camps. It was a pity that they were not aware that in resettlement camps they were going to be settled once and for all. There was one particular part that really disturbed me. It was when the Jews got on to the train to get to the camps. The narrator said with so much emotion, “The minute we got in, the minute they closed it on us with a bolt, terrible cries began inside in Polish, Yiddish, German pleading, requests, there’s no air. We’re suffocating, suffocating, suffocating”. It gave me goose bumps. I disliked the part where the dead bodies were looked at as recycling objects. Women’s hair were shaved, gold and false teeth were being pulled out and spectacles being collected in a heap. Was Hitler so sadistic that he could not allow a person to be cremated in a perfect condition? There was one part I enjoyed though and that was when a splash of brain fell on Himmler’s coat when he went for a visit to a concentration camp. I was laughing my head off.

Hitler disliked the Jews for he claimed them to be a dishonest bunch of people. First of all, he made a false impression to the German public and the International Red Cross by producing a propaganda film that portrayed the lives of the Jews being comfortable in resettlement camps when actually half of them were dead. Secondly, he should have looked into a mirror and asked himself, now who’s the big fat liar? A coward he was for destroying all forms of evidence of the mass murder mission. If he was right that the Jews were so called impure and that they must be murdered why would he remove evidence and create unnecessary films? Some of the Jews were also cowards for jumping into the pits to commit suicide. I salute those who fought bravely in the ghettos for 33 days.

The Jews of this 21^st century are now quite powerful and seem like a dangerous lot of people. They are causing devastation in Palestine and are also supplying sophisticated war equipments to other countries. Israel supplied Kfir fighter-bombers to the Sri Lankan government which was used to wipe out innocent Tamils in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. An anonymous commented one day as I was watching this documentary. He said that Hitler was stupid for he should have killed more Jews. Well I opposed his statement because I think that if Hitler did not start this act of injustice maybe the current Jews would not be doing all of this. I am guessing that they are finally showing out their frustration on the world for what had happened approximately 70 years ago when the Germans were being oblivious towards them.

Religion and Science believe that the world is gradually coming to an end. Humans will perish totally. Some say the Sun is going to explode. Some say it’s going to be an asteroid. Some say natural disaster. Hollywood says the earths crust will open up. I say it’s going to be war. If only we could avoid war and torture, maybe we would lead better and longer lives. People like Hitler tried to spark something that lead to something worse today. If only every single person on this earth listened and applied the song ‘Imagine’ sung by John Lennon, truly the world would be as one. One race called humans, one religion called love, and one peaceful place called EARTH.

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