April fool's lesson

Written for a contest

                     APRIL FOOL’S LESSON

                      

 

                        Dear readers you know, in Indian restaurants nobody can devise secret plans sitting on the coffee table of a mediocre coffee house. There will be so many eavesdroppers like me on the table right under the nose of conspirators. We flies are free to sit anywhere. No discussion either of learned or unlearned escape without brushing our ears. 

                     A lot of boys and girls visit Ramu’s not so clean restaurant everyday where I frequent to have my share of morsel of food that remain on the table even after the not so perfect cleaning of the boy in charge of wiping tables after each customer leaves the table.

                      That day on April first, while licking on the morning idly piece that spilled from the plate of one of boys, I was startled to hear the conversation between two boys sat across the table. They are going to write a love letter to a girl saying that she is extremely beautiful. From their talk what I understood was, this girl is very ugly and belongs to a backward community.

                       Dear friends, it pained me. As, nothing is as painful as being insignificant in this significant world. I knew it from my birth as a fly. I wished I could help this girl from these miscreants who are going to break her heart into pieces. These boys do not know how much she will begin to hate herself and the life itself if she comes to know that she is on the last rung according to the criteria society uses to determine who is beautiful and what is beautiful.

                       I stealthily crawled into the school bag of one boy. I want to see the girl, if I could help her somehow; the purpose of this birth is fulfilled.

                        In the class room I hid myself under the desk where the boys sat. The boys were not listening to the teacher. They were whispering about the execution of their plan. I couldn’t give my ears to what teacher said as all the while I was peeping into the love letter that thrust into the side pocket of boy’s bag anxiously.

                        But my attention got a quick turn when the word beauty fell upon my ears from the teacher. She was lecturing about beauty, no doubt. “Beauty is truth, truth is beauty” I heard her saying.  Though I couldn’t comprehend the meaning of everything she said I was sure that she was explaining something lofty and sublime which is difficult for an insignificant mortal being like me to understand. But I just sat listening under the desk.

                 As the lecturing was coming to an end teacher asked students to say in their own words what each think of their own beauty. Dear friends, I felt so sad thinking what the ugly girl would do. She will kill herself not able to bear the double ignominy one from teacher and the other from these miscreants.

                      Students came one by one stood in front of the class and began to express what they think of their beauty. Most of them giggled, girls were very shy. I flew up and sat clutching to the ceiling as I can see the whole class. There were indifferent faces, proud faces, dissatisfied faces, all were very much nervous about their beauty. It is very painful, this ordeal. As girls kept coming one by one, with an elated heart I searched for the ugly face. I could hear my heart beating my friends, I have not heard it with this much clarity in my life before this. I was that much anxious.

                          Finally her turn came. She was as dark as darkness. Her teeth protruded out of her mouth. Her rough hair without much oil in it flew in the air accentuating her ugliness. But contrary to my expectation this girl walked towards teacher’s podium with firm steps. As she walked I saw many boys chuckling and smirking, including the miscreants.

                         As all others in the class I was all ears while tears began to wet my eyes in sympathy for this girl. She stood in front of the platform collecting herself in silence for a couple of seconds. Then after clearing her throat she said like this.

    “If Keats is true..

       If Gandhi is true…

       I am the most beautiful girl of my class.

If beauty is truth and truth is beauty as keats said

If truth is God as Gandhi said, I am the most beautiful.

As this is my true appearance. This is my raw appearance. I do not go to beauty parlors, I do not use cosmetics. I know that I can change my looks if I want. But I am bold enough to live with the beauty the God bestowed upon me. I am not at all ashamed of my looks as my friends think. I am really proud of it as today teacher taught us an entirely new way of appreciating things. I am beautiful if God who created me is beautiful.

                             The teacher came down from her platform and embraced the girl. The whole class clapped their hands in a wonderful way that I have not seen before. My heart beats subsided and I was blind with tears, tears of happiness. I saw the boys tearing off their April fool love letter.

                         Dear friends, I left the class room with the lesson reciting in my mind that….

“If the God who created me is significant, I can never be insignificant”

                                   

 

 

Reviews

[RDOriginal]

I like this piece of writing. The style you've chosen has an element of naiivity but that helps carry the message across well. There's certainly a lesson in here for all of us and I like the way that the moral is delivered by the most humble of messengers. This helps make it seem less like preaching than the approach some other authors might use (e.g. God blasting everybody with his take on morality etc.) I'd certainly explore this style more as you've made it work very well.

[Honey]

I stumbled on your poem while voting for the "Lessons Learned" contest and was immediately drawn in by the concept of hearing from the fly on the wall. As I read I was sucked in deeper and deeper, and was completely moved by the end. As a woman it was an uplifting reminder of what real beauty is.
I really really liked the though pattern of the fly in regards to God and life's purpose; the last sentence was the PERFECT ending. Very very well done!

[Coyote Poetry]

This story was very good. A lesson can be learn in your words. I like the description and the pace of the story. Your ending tells the truth. A outstanding story that had reason and purpose to be read.
Coyote