Unforgettable (draft 5)

“Mother! Mother! Come, look at this!” Navina shouted angrily from the front door of the house, while staring at the paper in her hand.

“Oh dear! What happened?” Her mother replied as she immediately left what she was doing.

“I am no longer part of the school’s prefect team, not only me, but all the Tamil students have been replaced by the Sinhalese students” Navina cried out painfully to her mother.

Her mother comforted her, ensured her that greater opportunities lies ahead. Though those words weren’t infective enough, it did calm her down for the time being. . Navina was only fifteen years old, while her brother, Adhi, eighteen years of age. Their parents weren’t at all well to do, they had no education and their tea plantation job wasn’t bringing enough profit for the upkeep of the family. Adhi had done his best to keep his family up and going, and in terms of his academics, he did more than his best, but even with that, it didn’t help much. They were Indian Tamils not Sri- Lankan Tamils, so what difference does it make?

The Tamils had no rights whatsoever in the country. It was always the Sinhalese who had everything. Adhi and his family had no house of their own, the little one they lived in, can’t even be identified as a house. All of these citizenship rights could mostly be achieved by the Sinhalese only. Accompanied with the University admission criteria, neither did it in any way favour the Tamils, when in the past, all students, whether Tamil or Sinhalese, were given admission according to their results/merits. This greatly affected Adhi, as he was not able to take the course he had wanted to take. He was greatly shaken by this, he had worked really hard to get a good grade, but it all came to nothing. He thought about all the time he stayed back in school, went to libraries, just to make sure he he achieve his dream. All of these contributed to the civil war that took place in Sri Lanka.

Together she ran with her brother, she strongly felt the tight grip of Adhi on her. Even though they weren’t sure where they were going, all that Adhi could think of at that moment was to be somewhere safe with his sister. Suddenly, they both heard the terrible blast from the bomb they had luckily escaped from. They both looked at each other and ran even faster.

He carried his sister with the little strength he had left from all the running, as if to tell her, ‘it’s ok Nav, as long as I’m here, you’re surely safe.’ She managed a faint smile, and held on to her brother a little more tightly. Both his parents had died from this endless, horrible war, but they have been lucky enough to escape the death that faced them a moment ago. He shuddered from the thoughts. Finally, they found a suitable hide-out.
The cave entrance was dark and dank, but they had no choice, they thirst for safety more than anything, so they stepped inside reluctantly. The cave had several holes in it, which obviously came from all the gun shots. They had no idea of what could happen next, they just had to wait. While waiting, his eyes drifted to the hole right in front of him. He moved nearer towards it, his sister joined him in curiosity. They both wanted to scream, but they could not, they knew how dangerously they would be endangering their lives.

“That’s Saahan, look Nav!’” he murmured gladly to his sister who was as surprised as he was.

“Yes!” she whispered in astonishment, “it is, it’s Sahaan.” She replied melodiously.

“Poor him, it’s dangerous out there.” Adhi added, sadly shaking his head.

Saahan was Adhi’s neighbour, and also his best friend. They were so close that Adhi couldn’t imagine himself let his one and only best friend roam about like that, when he knew, Saahan like him, wanted safety. The horrified look on Saahan’s face said it all. It was worse than fear and sadly, he was also alone. What happened next was dreadful and sudden. Adhi thought he could save him, but before he could think of a way, he saw how his only best friend went down flat. In short, Sahaan was shot. No one knew where the bullet came from and how it had gotten Sahaan, and only him at that time. They cried all day, complaining about everything going on around them. Now, Adhi and Navina could only wish for safety. They had no guarantee, after seeing the death of their friend.


Recently, the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) was finally defeated with their leader- Prabakran killed in the final phase of the civil war. Now that there’s peace, though many things was lost and definitely can’t be retrieved, hope they make good use of another chance that’s bestowed upon them. Like the famous saying, “When there’s life, there’s hope.”

Word Count- 834.