Arbani, a student in our 9th grade class at Nalgonda has been working on an illustrated story all semester. He wanted to demonstrate the first installment. Arbani attends an all Muslim boys school on the extreme outskirts of Hyderabad in a small town called Nalgonda. He wanted to explore issues of religion and mysticism in rural India.

In this short story, notice how the student uses nature as a setting for the crossover between Christian and Muslim faiths to occur. Reading Ralph Waldo Emerson’s ‘On Nature’ may provide the reader with a poetic introduction: “in the woods is perpetual youth.” Arbani sees nature as the proper setting for religions to renew themselves and to mix together through mischief and economic need.  His story lives in the rural woodlands. It emphasizes what Emerson implied but never stated, that in the woods is perpetual wonder. I hope you enjoy this short piece. You will notice a marked difference in their ability to write with an individual voice and produce original ideas. This student has done so with success and many more are to follow. The enchanted wood of childhood not yet reduced to lumber.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGLOn08r5o0]

Below is a copy of the script.

Once upon a time there was a village. In olden days there was a forest in the village.

In the village there was living a magician. One day the magician was going to the forest. Suddenly he saw two devils by the church. He took a bottle and caught the two devils. He was a very brave man. He caught the devil, who is not one man but two, and put him in the bottle. The devil said please open the bottle cap. The magician said I don’t open bottle caps…you would escape. The magician said I need so much money, I need spirit, I need a show. I’ll put on a magic show.

The magician made the devils his assistant and performed a show in the church. After, the magician took them and went to the devil’s home safely.

The devils are very powerful. The devils broke the bottle and escaped. The devils will is the magician’s will. The devils are happy. The magician is sad. Hear him cry at the mosque, at the muezzin, *his call to prayer.

*Note: Arbani also considered this for his last line:

“Hear him cry at the mosque, at the meuzzin, being alone is also his call to prayer.”