My Little hands

I clean the shoes on their feet

That they thrust at my 7-year old face

But I understand, he’s a city man

My little hands dare not make him late.


I wake up to work, I walk to work

I sleep only so that I can work

When I get to work I’m beaten to work,

Even though I never stop,

Harder, faster, better or beating

I eat whatever makes me work.

One day we were awarded an hour’s break,

So I leaned back on the factory’s outer wall,

Looking at the buildings, and roads and shimmering dresses,

And thought: I had a hand in them all!

But as I looked at my hands,

Bruised and rough, like a tired old man’s,

I wondered: Is a hand in them all I will have?

What I was to shed as tears for my predicament,

I shed it all as sweat.

But suddenly, I was surprised to find,

A tear slowly creep out of my eyes,

How could it be? I asked myself

But then I realized…

It was just how my body sweats… in my hour of rest.

Zaynab Chinoy in her blog. Here

Children and Tomorrow

I am sitting in my study, in front of my PC, writing this article on how we perceive children nowadays. Behind me my daughter Maha, 7 this month, is drawing on my 'reporter's pad'. Whenever I get stuck, which is about every other sentence, I turn around to ask Maha a few questions. 'Maha', I say at one juncture, 'What would you like to see in the future?'. Even before I have finished the question I begin to feel foolish. After all, what perception can a child of seven possibly have of the future? 'You mean tomorrow?' she asks.
 

'No. I mean a long time from now.'
 

'Next month?'
 

'No many months from now.'
 

'Let's see'. She closes her eyes. 'I like to see lots of happy children. And grown ups too. I don't want to see those children we saw on television. The ones who had nothing to eat. I would like to see them with lots of toys. I don't like fighting. I do like to see children playing with each other. And grown ups too. I like my teacher Mrs Black. I wish we all have teachers like her. And I like schools. I wish there were lots of schools'. She opens here eyes; and then continues with her drawing.

From Ziauddin Sardar's article Children and Tomorrow.

To read the full article click here.