"Honestly, she took up a lot of space in my mind that day."
A Girl Like Her:
Street Children: Shahnoor
By Niha Hasan
There is a story of a little girl carved on this piece of wood.
One winter, I met a girl in town. She roamed the streets all day, and as soon as evening came, she ran into a tent house. The girl was like a fairy. She was talking so nicely, it seemed like I could just keep listening to her all day over and over again. Her words were so clear, so pure. Just like an audiobook. Maybe, she cannot study because she is financially indigent. Or maybe, due to the complexity of her family environment, her parents did not feel the need for her to study. Whatever it is, I didnโt know.
I was fascinated by the introduction that she gave me without education or studying. The girl's name was Shahnoor. What a beautiful name! What a beautiful way to talk. And the color of her eyes was brown. What a magical smile! Honestly, she took up a lot of space in my mind that day.
After meeting her, I was thinking about her all the time. She screwed me over by a thought of why humans are like chalk and cheese compared to fairies and wonder creatures. I thought I'd ask her to be my little friend, if I ever see her again. I would love to give her a picture book. But she was never to be seen again.
The girl left as soon as the sun set in the winter morning. I am the person who always feels blah, like chalk and cheese. But that day, she left me with a message. The message filled me up with emotions that felt like a shock wave.
From that feeling, I painted a little Shahnoor on a piece of wood. A memory of Shahnoor made by me. If she had grown up in a proper environment, the girl would have stayed on one of these platforms. She wouldnโt be lost to the wind. But since I could no longer find her, I keep her memory in the wood.
To me, the little girl is a story. So much that the girl's face on this piece of wood will stay with me in every storybook I read, much like her imagination that day.
๐โ๐ฎ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ
๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฐ
๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ฉ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ณ!
โ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ข๐ญ๐ฌ๐ด, ๐ช๐ต ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ด ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ
๐ข ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ง๐ถ๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ด๐ถ๐ฏ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ง๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข ๐ค๐ญ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฅ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ณ๐ด๐ต.
๐๐ฏ๐ฅ, ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ช๐ตโ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ฉ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ.โ
I later made it a thread- patterned woodmark so that Shahnoor could easily mark my pages in storybooks I read, filling up the pages with her presence.