|
"This is a grown-up who obeys the laws and who has rights. That's what my Mom tells me", answered Tanya.
"And you kids, are you also Russian citizens? You also do have both rights and responsibilities. Do you know them?"
"We must go to school and help our parents, but we don't know about rights", said Nastya.
"You have a right to have your own opinion and freely express it, for example. Do you ever use this right?"
"Of course not. The other day I told the sales-person in a shop that a dog had stolen some chicken from her counter. She just yelled back at me, saying it's none of my business. And then she took the chicken from the dog and put it back on the counter," told me Valya.
"If at school you tell the teacher it's not allowed to beat the kids with a pointer, she would beat you in reply," said Nastya.
"What sort of problems do you have?"
"I'd like to have some pocket money, but my parents do not give it to me," said Tanya.
"The food in our school cafeteria is terrible. My parents at home often have quarrels," said Nastya.
"Do you have any difficulties in relations with other people, of your age or grown-ups?"
"There are difficulties in my family. My Dad left us a year ago. Mom became angry after that. The only thing the teachers at school care about is when they will get the salary and nothing else, we all see that. Kids of my age are real savages. The boys can easily hurt a girl," explained Tanya.
"Yes, yes! Last winter, we were sitting in a room at the skating-rink and one boy tried to stick to a girl. She told him to get lost. And then he hit her with his skate and cut the flesh up to the bone!" said Valya.
"Girls are no better! If they do not like your dress they can call you names, tell you are a beggar and an ugly face", complained Nastya.
This interview with the girls from my neighborhood turned to be a sad one, particularly for myself. These little girls could not (or would not) believe me that even at their 10 or 11 years they already are the citizens of our country. I felt sick for Russia and for those who will live there and do their "sacred duty".
Oksana Levchenko
Tynda, Siberia
When I was writing poetry, I saw a star, Alone in the wilderness, It was sparkling out silence. It was from a fairy tale Of cold wind of winter, It quickly moved her light away, Brushing the trees with the beams But the light is still on For those who seek the path, And the star calls them, "Follow me, Through troubles and grief, Through tangles of life you should go, Staying on the path of good, Cast the light on someone's trail, Keep shining like I do, always"
Mammy! Mammy, Mammy! Open a bright world for me! I want to see the world, How it really looks. I know the world is bright, Isn't it so, Mom?
When I grow up, I will be working in police, as my Dad does. Then I will study to become a District Prosecutor. Because I cannot keep looking at all the wrong things that happen around, and in my city. It hurts to watch small kids, ages 5 to 10, begging at the doors of our houses, asking for food, dress, or money. Their parents suggest this, they are guilty. I cannot quietly watch how older students at recesses beat the money out of the younger kids in school corridors. Little boys are not willing to lose their money they've been given by mothers for buying lunch. But at the entrance to the building they are met by the mob of smoking nasty teenagers. I know from personal experience how much do they like to hurt, to humiliate, to make you cry, more so if you are not ethnic Russian.
I have to face a question, how could I fight back? That's why after graduation from school I would like to study law, to be able to punish the parents who don't want to work, who make thieves and criminals of their children. When I become a district prosecutor, I will do a fair judgment for every case, so that justice prevails and no bad guys are left in the world. I do not want kids trying the path of crime in their childhood, I do not want them gathering in gangs in cellars and basements. And the parents should care a lot more about their children, should teach them beauty, and good, and of course honor. Then, I think, the world will be a wonderful place. Of course, all that is just my day- dreaming. But nonetheless it will come true!
Regina Nizamova,
11 years old
Tynda, Amur region (Eastern Siberia)
Here I am. I wonder, who I am.
I wake up in the morning, throwing away my dreams, and immideately realise that I have a proper time-table of the beginning day in my brains. So, today I'll have to run about the city to find something interesting in its life, then I'll have to go to the broadcast, then to the meeting with "an interesing person". To make the picture of the day complete, an outing for the week-end is due. The day will be mixed. Oh, my God! Very little time ago I had nothing to do except my homework, but now...!!!
Here's the day - before me. Smile!!!
And here I am hurrying on the street in light clothes. I ask a million questions to people and they give me answers. The first half of the day has passed in no time. I'm at the broadcast. Here I have to change. I put the glasses on my nose and make my voice half an octave lower than usual and then I begin. "Hello! We're having very fine weather today!!!"
The broadcast is over, so, I have an hour for a little rest and go home. Here I change clothes listening to the music. Take off the jeans! The suit and the tie are on (what are you talking about? it's awfully hot outside! but I have to put on official clothes). So, I'm going to the meeting. There I try to pretend that everything is interesting and clear, thinking of the nearest ending.
At last the evening got down. My friends and I are sitting around the bonfire. The guitar is in my hands. We're singing songs about the sense of life, the day of yesterday, and about the hard life of us - the young.
Arcadi Lensky
As for me, I like one philosophical phrase about life: "To name means to set the limit". So, when answering the question "Who?" it's better to say that you are "Nowhere Man". Such kind of answer leaves so much space for the imagination. Let the other answers hell, because usually telling about himself one is going to prove that "he is not a donkey" and to present the strange mixture of his pose and flirting. A man is a medley of Good and Evil, and the life just forms the personality of these and other qualities. So, nobody knows, who am I. Neitner do I. Everythying depends on life, forming of me something. I think that the man is a living mirror, reflecting everything that somebody behind him wants to see. Every person seeing in me just what he wants to find; "he takes his, where he sees his".
My friends khow me as a girl who can listen to "Aquarium" and "Nirvana" all day long. They know, that they can speak to me about books.
The teachers in my school are quite sure that shere is no place for such crazy as I am (here you can see my pose) in our school. My parents think that I am a clever child, who looks at the world so seriously.
All of them are quite right. That's me. That's me, reading Gumilev's poems. That's me, drinking beer and playing guitar. That's me crying, listening to the flute. That's me... Who am I? Still "Nowhere man".
| |Moscow Life home page | All 30+ Moscow Life stories | Most recent story here | |
 Please click the banner above to open my other site about Russia! |
