Photo courtesy Loren Joseph, Unsplash!
Nemaji is a very gentle soul and deeply committed to teaching children to be all they can be. He works in the Pune region of India in the primary school system. Nemaji's native language is Marathi. He takes English lessons with The School Inside. Here he writes a story his English teacher assigned to him in which he had to use several specified words (shown in italics).
A BOY and a girl were staying in a farmhouse. The boy’s name was Rudra and the girl’s name was Paru. They had a beautiful house. This house had a cellphone and computer. There was a beautiful garden, so many trees in the garden! Rudra and Paru everyday played together. They went to the garden and played games. They were very good friends.
In the garden was a very old and big mango tree. The mango tree gave them shade and fruits. The mango tree was very happy because he had lots of birds, branches, and leaves. Every morning, Rudra and Paru walked in the garden. The garden was very soft with clean grass. They walked on the grass. The grass touched their feet and tickled them. They were very happy when they walked. While walking they saw some mangoes under the tree. They ran festively and picked up the mangoes. The mangoes were very sweet and tasty. Every morning they were collecting mangoes and eating them.
One day there were no mangoes under the tree, but both of them were very hungry. Paru said to Rudra, please climb the tree and break off some mangoes. But he was not prepared for Paru’s demand.
Rudra said, “Why are you telling me to climb the tree?! I will not climb the tree!”
Paru answered, “But I am girl. It is not my work!”
And so they did not eat that day, all because of a community’s sexism. It’s carried from generation to generation. —Nemaji