All 'Lives' have equal 'Value' - Aria Gupta

Photo: https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/equality-inclusion-and-diversity/fair-and-equal/

This blog is about a book I’ve read and loved known as “The War that Saved My Life” by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. There are no spoilers ahead; I’ll just briefly introduce the protagonists' life. Her name is Ada, and she has a twisted foot.

"I was waving from the window when Ma'am smacked me in the face. “I gave you some time to look out the window out of kindness, and you decided to wave!” she bellowed. “I was just waving to Stephen White!” I cried back in defence. “You ain't waving to nobody with that crippled foot!” she exclaimed. “Jamie's out there,” I said quietly. “He ain’t a cripple like you!” responded Ma'am. Soon, she left for work. It was a perfect time. I was crawling, and I tried to stand up. “Aaah!” I cried in pain as tears rolled down my eyes. I could also see a little blood in the place, where I kept my bad foot as I fell back down to the ground, crawling again. I tried a second time, doing it more slowly and cautiously. First, my good foot, then my bad one. Still, the pain wasn’t any less. I shrank back down to the ground, deciding I’ll stop this walking thing for today. I cleaned the blood on the floor so that Ma'am couldn’t notice and stayed there for a while. Suddenly, Jamie burst through the door. “Why are you so late?” I scolded. Jamie was left speechless. When he was younger, we had always played together. As he grew older, he wanted to play with the kids on the street. I told him to be where I could see him. At first, he did, but then he made friends with a gang of boys and always went running out of sight. I was lonely in the one-room apartment. I dreaded being lonely. I could go out. I’m not that helpless. It’s just that the last time I went outdoors, ma'am beat me until my shoulders bled. I’m not even allowed to go to school. So, I just had to stay in this apartment, all alone, waiting for someone to come."

- Taken from the book 'The war that saved my life'.

Ada, here, is being mistreated because she is specially-abled, which is incredibly wrong. All lives are equal, and you can't label a person as 'not so important' or a 'disgrace to the family' just because of their occupation, weaknesses, etc. This is because even though they might need more attention and help than us, they are still humans who deserve to be treated right.

Aria Gupta
Grade VI | Gyanshree School

Courage - Somnath

Courage is one of the best qualities of a human being. Courage means to go against your fears and do something. This courage of Indian soldiers in the Siachen borders motivates them to protect our country in such extreme conditions.

My uncle is hydrophobic, and he doesn’t even go near a pool. One summer evening, we were driving along the banks of river Hooghly in Kolkata. It was a hot and wet summer evening. My father parked the car near the banks to enjoy the cool breeze. All of a sudden, we could hear a strange noise. It seemed that someone was wailing. We saw a tiny brown puppy stuck in the mud near the river when we went near. The mother dog tried to rescue it but couldn’t, wailing helplessly. We did not know what to do. To all or surprise, my uncle jumped in the muddy river and rescued the little pup and brought it back to its mother. We were all astonished. A person with fear for water had actually shown the courage and had gone against his fears to save the little pup. Courage gives the person the strength to fight against his mental weakness and do something good. 

We should be courageous and use it for helping others and for doing good to society.

Somnath
Class 6 D
AHLCON PUBLIC SCHOOL