Not all wars are won with violence

The only part of the story

In the year 1930, there was a conflict between India and England. The British government at the time was at war with Germany, Britain had one of the smallest armies of all the major European powers because they had always relied on the millions of men they could call upon from India. Furthermore, India was looking for its independence from England, but considering that they were holding a war against Germany, the independence of India was not even close to occurring. This story tells how a man fought for the rights of all Indian citizens, a man who not only spoke up for his people but made his voice heard with no violence. Mahatma Gandhi was his name, who at the time was 31 years old.

It was a cold night in July when screams were heard coming from the town square. In the little village of Odanthurai, there was usually little to no noise, it was a pretty quiet hamlet. However, this evening was different, Aarnav came running into his house, he had blood on his fists and all over his shirt, you could see the fear in his face, mistakes had been made. Aarnav, a Hindu man, who was in his early 40's and barely had enough to eat, had committed the worst crime a human could ever execute, murdering a child. He had argued with his wife at lunch, he aggressively stood up and left; the man furiously started walking down the street and ran into a little Muslim boy, his anger blinded him and started beating him up until the youngster couldn't get himself to stand up. It took Aarnav 10 seconds to realize what he had done, the only option left was to run, run for his life, and pray to God for forgiveness! The following morning, every single one of the villagers knew what had happened, another war was about to begin. Muslims and Hindus had always had their differences, it took them 500 years to form an alliance, but Aarnav's action did not make the Muslim leaders very happy. They were angry and started lining their troops on the battlefield, ready to start the slaughter. Our poor Indian man was losing his mind, in a moment of despair and anger he had killed that helpless child, and now the world was falling apart around him.

With no other option left, Aarnav decided to go to the town sage, the only person capable of solving a problem like that and of stopping war from breaking out, the one and only Mahatma Gandhi. Aarnav went to Gandhi's house, asking for advice, praying that this man would be his savior. Gandhi was sitting next to his faithful cat, Ruwa when Aarnav came through the door, gasping after running from his house to Gandhi's with tears in his eyes, Gandhi looked at him and said.

- "My dear Aarnav, old friend, much I have heard from you, the whole town wants you and your community dead"

To which Aarnav replied.

- "Oh Gandhi, wise Gandhi, I made a huge mistake which is going to start a war, and there's nothing I can do to prevent that from happening"

Gandhi had been waiting for Aarnav's visit since earlier that day, as you should know by now, he was a sage and could predict what was going to happen, that's why he was sure that Aarnav would come running to him for help. Calmly, he stood up and approached the visitor, then he turned around and started walking in circles, mouthing incomprehensible things that to Arnav sounded like some kind of mispronounced Irish. Aarnav didn't want to interrupt, Gandhi looked pretty focused and was rubbing his hands in an almost comical way. Five, ten, fifteen minutes passed, and finally, Mahatma had come up with something.

- "There's only one way out"

Gandhi said to the guest. Aarnav looked at him with hope glowing in his eyes, incapable of waiting much longer he asked.

- "Go ahead, sir, what can I do to fix my tremendous mistake?"

- "You'll have to go to the child's community and pick up an orphan Muslim boy and raise him as your own, then..."

Aarnav didn't let him finish and interrupted him by confidently saying.

- "That'll be easy, my wife had been asking me for a child for months and due to

the fact that I'm infertile I haven't been able to satisfy her wishes, so it's a win-win

right? He's gonna be such an amazing Hindu little boy!"

Aarnav sounded happy and satisfied and proceeded to walk to the door when

Gandhi loudly coughed to get the man's attention, Aarnav, with surprise turned

around and approached Mahatma.

- "Sir, I was about to leave, I thought we had finished the conversation"

- "No, you are missing out on the most important part, what is actually going to bring peace back to our town..."

- "What is it? What could I possibly do other than to raise a Muslim child as mine?"

Aarnav started to sweat a bit, worried about Gandhi's reply.

- "You'll have to raise this Muslim child as Muslim, teach him Muslims ways and you won't intervene in his religious education with any of your Hindu beliefs"

- "Are you insane?! What am I gonna do with a Muslim at home!? They are absolutely the worst people ever!! By Shiva, are you out of your mind?!!"

- "Sit and listen, what you have done is terrible, murdering a child? That's an almost unforgivable thing in the eyes of Buda. But don't freak out, as I said, "almost" so there's a chance you get into heaven and stop this atrocious slaughter from happening"

- I understand, but I can't do that! It goes against my beliefs! And a real male never goes against his own thoughts"

Aarnav walked away and grabbed the door handle. Before he could leave Gandhi added a piece of advice to the conversation, wise words of a wise man.

- "Dear Aarnav, I won't fight you, just think about this phrase when you go to bed this very night: The kind soul of a kid is a present from Buda to the earth and who chooses to take care of it will be seen as a savior on the eyes of Buda"

Aarnav angrily slammed the door and left, but the words Gandhi said got him thinking, he couldn't sleep at all, overthinking the situation.

14 years had passed and much has changed since that cold night of July, but all I can say is thanks to the wise uncle Gandhi for giving my father advice. You may wonder what happened, and what decision did Aarnav finally make. That following morning after visiting Gandhi, Aarnav woke up and decided to do the right thing, he went to my community, picked me up, and raised me as if I was his blood son. Aarnav stopped a war from happening, here I would say that he was a hero for committing such a huge act, but considering he was the one who started everything... well, I'll leave it there.