A Children's short story:

A change of heart

by Husna Inayathullah

Ayomi felt embarrassed when she was bullied by her classmates.

"You country devil!, you are a real countryside girl, we hate you to the core", said Anna, the girl who was seated right opposite her." Look at her hair,it is yucky commented Alice"She is not suitable to be with us", said another girl in her class. The whole class started to yell and laugh at her. I have never felt so embarrassed in my life! thought Ayomi. She started to cry and tears rolled down her cheeks. She closed her eyes and suddenly her thoughts flashed back to the days she spent in her village in Ududumbara.

She recalled the days she played with her friends Sita, Mala, Saduni and Upeksha. The days that they spent together playing hopscotch, four corners, land and water, kabedi and flying kites in the paddyfield.

The times that they watched the farmers singing and ploughing the field. Bathing in rivers and waterfalls, running into jungles and playing hide and seek and pelting stones using catapults at raw mangoes and being blamed by the owner of the mango trees. She just felt how terrific those days were and just felt like going back to those days.

Scholarship

Ayomi regretted for passing her scholarship examinations at her village school and for gaining admission to a leading and privileged school in the city because she could not bear the insults by her friends at school. Her friends were so rude and cruel towards her. They had a stong notion that the children who came from villages were unclean, impolite, foolish and compared them to frogs in wells. They treated Ayomi in such a way that she even felt like quitting school. The whole grade six class were against her. They kept on teasing her and she was a reserved character in her classroom.

The other girls in her class never spoke to her in a friendly manner.They never played with her in the playgrounds during Physical. Training periods. They never shared anything with her and dubbed her being low class. The days which she spent at her new school in the city was like hell to her. She started to hate her school life a lot. She was a very intelligent and a courageous girl but now she started to get low marks in all the subjects. She did not score like she scored during her days at her village school.

As she was in boarding school in the city, she always counted her days to get back to her village where her family, relatives and friends were.She felt that her days in the city were dark and dull and she did not have anyone to share her happiness and sorrows. Though Ayomi's friends were rude to her, she was always kind towards them. She tried the best possible ways to make friends with them. She was always ready to forgive her friends for teasing and mocking at her but her efforts were all in vain.

Embarrassed

Ayomi was always ready to share her things but her friends treated her stuff in a cheap way. They teased the way she ate because she used her fingers to eat but her friends ate with forks and spoons and Ayomi has never used forks and spoons to eat in her life. Whenever Ayomi went to buy something from the canteen, she felt awful and embarrassed because the canteen had many types of food which she has never seen or eaten in her life time. There were pizzas, burgers and french fries but she even did not know what they were by name.So, she was underestimated by her friends in front of everyone.

One day they arranged a field trip from her school to do an assignment on "Srilankan villages" and to Ayomi's surprise the trip was in her own village, Ududumbara for which her friends were always teasing her. Ayomi was so glad when she heard her teacher announcing it. The trip was arranged for the following week and Ayomi was getting ready with excitement because it was after a long time that she was going to her village.

The rest of the students in Ayomi's class were not happy with the trip. "Oh my God!, we do not like to go to that village teacher. It does not suit us.The people living in villages are so awful", said Mellisa. Some made negative comments.

Stories

The students in the class said all sorts of stories which hurt Ayomi a lot. The day of the trip arrived. Ayomi was so happy but her classmates were not so. They joined the excursion because the teacher made it compulsory for all the students. The other students could not avoid going on the trip. All the students got into the bus early at 4.30 a.m. Everyone except Ayomi was unhappy about the trip. The journey started and around 9.30 a.m. they reached Ududumbara.

Ududumbara was a very beautiful place with greenery everywhere. There was a beautiful waterfall surrounded by a thick jungle. There was fresh air everywhere and beautiful paddy fields. Ayomi's classmates were shocked and happy to see them. They have never been to such a clean, quiet and beautiful place in their lifetime. The people in the village were very friendly and they warmly welcomed them. They respected them much. Ayomi and her classmates went into the thick jungle and they bathed in the river. They ran across the paddy fields and they flew kites and had so much of fun. The students of Ayomi's class were taken to this region to do an assignment, so the students took snapshots of the region and they spoke to the villagers to get some ideas on their lifestyles.

Ayomi's friends were so impressed. They could not believe that the villagers were so good and polite. Though they lacked technical know-how compared to the people in the city but they were far more humane. They had a lot of good qualities. They were so friendly and always ready to help each other. Ayomi's friends were feeling so guilty when they realised how nice the villagers were.

All these days they had a negative attitude about the people in the village but soon after the excursion they realised that people cannot be graded or measured using the place from which they come but it is their attitudes which matters a lot. They realised how selfish the people in the town were and how loving and caring the villagers were.

At the end Ayomi's classmates apologised to her for insulting her and all of them became good friends. Ayomi forgave all her friends and loved her school, studies and friends in the city.