JUSTICE

Narrative



Anishka sits alone in the dark late at night, cat on her lap dog by her side, the television is on. She cannot sleep but that is about the only problem. As she focuses her attention on the television, all she sees are people brutally being murdered, women crying and effortlessly struggling to leave behind the remains of their dying children whose body parts were scattered by bombs and lives been lost with a blink of an eye. A tear slowly begins to trickle down her smooth delicate face as she murmur these words to herself without fail to stop, “When is my turn to die, when will I become like them.” Then and there she realises that she is a lucky sod.
Anishka is a Sri Lankan Tamil. Her grandparents were raised and born in Sri Lanka. They later died due to health problems and poor Anishka was taken in by an Indian Tamil family. The Indian Tamils were shipped to Sri Lanka by the British in 1940s. The British gave good benefits to the Indian Tamils over the local Sri Lankans. This angered many Sri Lankans and when the British left in 1948 and granted Sri Lanka its independence, the Sri Lankans decided to take their revenge slowly by changing some policies. Little had they known that the changes would results in millions getting killed.

It all began in1948 when Anishka’s foster parents went to try and get her citizenship rights has her legal parents had left her with no identity documents. They approached the government house and noticed that there was a long cue made up of mostly Tamils, who were there to also get citizenship rights. It was a hot day and they cue stretched out of the building into the hot scotching sun. They waited for hours and hours with the cue barely moving. The sky was steadily growing dark as they finally entered the building. As the people were leaving the building, Anishka noticed how disappointed they looked. Some were crying on their knees and begging for citizenship so that their children can go to school and have a better life. While others were willing to sell some of their kids so that they themselves can have citizenship rights and live a better life. Tension and suspense had filled the atmosphere of those waiting in the queue.

“Next,” A women from the counter shouted. Realising it was their turn, Anishka took here mums hand and they headed for the counter.“Madam, this is Anishka, her parents died of illness and I took her in. they left her with no documents so I came to apply for citizenship for her.” Said Anishka’s mum.“Are you originally from Sri Lanka,” asked the woman in an inhuman manner.“No madam, I’m from India” answered my mum“Then I’m sorry but we can’t grant your daughter citizenship, what if she is really your child and you lying on her behalf” “No madam she is not, please madam please, she has been through a lot. Pleas help her,” pleaded my mum in agony.“Please don’t waste my time, next” she shouted with a sly smile across her face, as she turned her attention to the next person.

A puddle of tears filled my eyes as I left the building. My mum picked me and told me,

“Hey Nish, its going to be okay, I want you to walk with your head high, don’t worry as long as we are together it will be fine. Now let me see a smile on your pretty little face”

Anishka wiped her eyes, gave her mum a hug and they walked out of the building together and headed home. As they approached their village in south western Sri Lanka they sensesed that something was wrong. There were people walking out of the village with a small plastic bags which contained their belongings. Smoke filled Anishka’s lungs as she scanned the place to see what was going. Her mum pulled and began running towards what was left of their house only to noticed that it had been consumed in the fire. She noticed a white note on the floor. She picked it up and slowly began to read it. Her hands began shivering and her legs trembled as she read the words that were written on them:

“Tamils aren’t welcome here anymore; go back to where you came from and stop polluting our air.”

Filled with shocked she turned to Anishka trying hard to fight back her tears, and told her that what she watched on TV had now come to our village and it was time for them to go. She assured her that it’s going to be okay but realised that her words sounded fake to her ears to. Anishka, her mum and other Tamils living in the area, headed to the highlands to join the majority Indian Tamils that were living there.


On the way there they met an old friend by name of Vengadesh, who was also an Indian Tamil. He was Anishka’s guardian who found a family for her after her parents died. He was the breadwinner of his family and he was helping Anishka to.“What’s wrong, why do u look so down.”“The government says that we should learn Sinhalese within 3 years if not we can not work their anymore, said Vengadesh.

Anishka failed to understand why he couldn’t learn a new language because to her three years was a long time. Little did she know that Vengadesh was illiterate and therefore it will be nearly impossible to learn a new language. She gave him a hug, wiped his tears and told him not to worry that everything would be okay. Taken aback by what she did, he put a small smile on his face and told her she was right. Little did she know that this was just the beginning of struggle that would take years to end, a journey just begun.

Many Tamils were outraged by the way they were being treated by the Sinhalese. A small group of angry Tamils began a movement called the ltte. This movement began fighting against the Sri Lankan armies as they felt that their were being unfairly treated and there was nobody there to listen to them. The movement was set up in the highlands were Anishka stayed with her mum, because there were lot of Tamils there, the Sri Lankan armies began bombing the highlands and other parts full of Tamils. Young boys were taken away from their families and made to fight in there war. Everyday Anishka and her mum lived in fear of their lives. Riots were taking place all. There were bodies of dead innocent children and women who were at the wrong place at a wrong time. People around the village lived their lives not knowing when their time was coming.

The fighting continued over a long period of time. Young children such as Anishka were denied a childhood that people around the world take for granted. All they woke up to was dead bodies and each day they slept in fear of their lives wondering when it will be their turn.