A NEW PAPER STORY
Do you think it would be easy for you to make friends with someone who was very different from you? Read the following story and think about this.
I had meant it as a joke. A joke made up for a small ragged boy who sold newspapers at the Janpat crossing at the busy intersection. Every time I cycled past he would run after me, holding out the English paper and screaming out the evening's headlines in a mixture of Hindi and English words. This time, I stopped by the pavement and asked for the Hindi paper. His mouth fell open.
"You mean you know Hindi?" he asked.
"Of course," I said as I paid for the paper.
"Why? What did you think?"
He paused. "But you look so…so angrez," he said. "You mean you can even read Hindi?"
"Of course I can," I said, this time a little impatiently. "I can speak, read, and write Hindi. Hindi is one of the subjects I study in school."
"Subjects?" he asked. How could I explain what a subject was to someone who had never been to school? "Well, it is something…" I began, but the lights changed, and the honking behind me grew a hundredfold and I let myself be pushed along with the rest of the traffic.
The next day he was there again, smiling at me and holding out a Hindi paper. "Bhaiyya," he said, "aap ka akhbaar. Ab Bathaaiye yeh subject kya cheez hai?" the English word sounded strange on his tongue. It sounded like its other meaning in English – to be ruled by someone else.
"Oh, it's just something to study," I said. And then because the red light had come on, I asked him, "Have you ever been to school?" "Never," he answered. And he added proudly, "I began working when I was so high." He measured himself against my cycle-seat. "First my mother used to come with me but I can do it all alone."
"Where is your mother now?" I asked, but then the lights changed and I was off. I heard him yell from somewhere behind me, "She's in Meerut with…" The rest was drowned out.
"My name is Samir," he said the next day. And very shyly he asked, "What's yours?" It was incredible. My bicycle wobbled. "My name is Samir too," I said. "What?" His eyes lit up. "Yes," I grinned at him. "It's another name for Hanuman's father, you know." "So now you are Samir Ek and I'm Samir Do," he said triumphantly. "Something like that," I answered, and then I held out my hand. "Haath milao, Samir Do!" His hand nestled in mine like a little bird. I could still feel its warmth as I cycled away.
The next day, he did not have his usual smile for me. "There is trouble in Meerut," he said. "Many people are being killed there in the riots." I looked at the headlines. Communal Riots, it blazed. "But Samir…" I began. "I'm a Muslim Samir," he said in answer. "And all my people are in Meerut." His eyes filled with tears and when I touched his shoulder, he would not look up.
He was not at the crossing the day after. Neither the day after nor ever again. And no newspaper, in English or Hindi, can tell me where my Samir Do has gone.
Activity:
Make a list of the festivals that might have been celebrated by the two boys.
Samir Ek:
Samir Do:
Can you think of a situation in which you made friends with someone who was very different from you? Write a story that describes this.
Source: This topic is taken from NCERT TEXTBOOK
JOURNEY OF SAMIR EK AND SAMIR DO
While Samir Ek is more familiar with English, Samir Do speaks Hindi. Although they both are more at home in different languages they still communicated with each other. They made the effort to do so because this was what was important to them.
Samir Ek and Samir Do also come from different religious and cultural backgrounds. While Samir Ek is a Hindu, Samir Do is a Muslim. Different religious and cultural backgrounds such as these are an aspect of diversity.
In addition to their diverse religious and cultural backgrounds, there are other ways in which Samir Ek and Samir Do are different from each other. For example, while Samir Ek goes to school, Samir Do sells newspapers.
Activity:
1. Name three ways in which Samir Ek and Samir Do were different?
2. Did these differences prevent them from becoming friends?
Source: This topic is taken from NCERT TEXTBOOK
WHY SAMIR DO A PAPERBOY?
Samir Do did not have the opportunity to attend school. Perhaps you've noticed that there are several people in the area where you live who are poor and who don't have enough to eat or wear and sometimes not even a place to live. This difference is not the same as the one we have seen earlier. Here, we're talking not of difference but of inequality. Inequality comes about when a person does not have the resources and opportunities that are available to other persons.
The caste system is another example of inequality. According to this, society was divided into different groups depending upon the work that people did and they were supposed to remain in those groups. So if your parents were potters you could only become a potter, nothing else. This system was considered irreversible. And because you were not supposed to change your profession, it was not considered necessary for you to know anything more than what you needed in your profession. This created a situation of inequality. You will read more about this and other inequalities in the following chapters.
Discuss
Why do you think Samir Do did not attend school? Do you think it would have been easy for him to attend school if he wanted to? In your opinion is it a fair situation that some children get to go to school and others don't?
Source: This topic is taken from NCERT TEXTBOOK