Well i'm not allowed to,but ill come...

It was back then when the radio was peoples iPhone and carts were considered as BMWs. It took place in a small village in the big city called Madraspatinam now Chennai in India. It was the time when the Indians were fighting against the East Indian Company for their motherland. It revolves around a mother, who married a British man and had a daughter. Now sixteen years later the daughter is grown up and is already fighting for her rights unaware that some rights exit only to be denied…and her dad is far off fighting in the Second World War leaving his wife and daughter to their own battles.

“What were you thinking Annika? That you can just get away with you telling people that it’s your right to learn English?” questions her mum after pulling her inside the house and bolting the door behind her.

“What else do you want me to do mum, just sit here afraid of this world forever? I want to fight mum, not only for me or for you but for all of us” fires back Annika not backing down.

“Of course you would say this. I am your mom and you have to listen to me. Not the other way around ok?” her mom asks trying to end the conservation.

“No, you don’t get to say what I should do, when you act like a coward,” Annika says mentally backhanding herself.

“Act like a coward!” her mom scoffs with confrontation in her eyes. “You think that’s what I’m doing?”

“Then what are you doing mum, trying to protect me from everything and forbidding me to speak or read English. You know that’s the only dream I have to learn English ...so ...so I can talk to dad. ”Annika says with tears gleaming in her eyes and her voice gives away before she could finish what she was about to say.

“Exactly! That’s what I don’t want to be happening Annika” her mom says with pity.

“You don’t want me to learn English for dad’s sake? You don't want me to talk English, learn English literature, the only language that my dad knows?”Anika says, her voice barely audible has the tears slowly roll down her sun-kissed cheeks. 

“Your dad doesn’t belong here. He doesn’t belong to our community and though I hope to god, pray every single day that he is doing fine and alive somewhere, I also wish he doesn’t come back here Annika.” her mom says trying to be calm and make her daughter understand the situation

“Why?” Annika asks more to herself than her mom. “Why, what?” her mom asks as she pulls Annika into her arms and hugs her, wiping away the tears with her blistered palms.

“Why don’t you want dad to come here?” Annika asks between a series of hiccups.

Her mom pulls her down to the mud floor which is the only room that they call a house and the only proof is the closed four walls with a thatched roof. Annika lies on her mom's lap, vulnerable for the first time crying and letting all her insecurities out.

“It is because even though he married me, and is fighting against his own people if he comes back our people would kill him. We belong here, Annika. In this village where people are not educated yet to understand what’s happening here, a nation fighting against another for their rights of penetration.”

“ but these people are not our people, are they mum? Your own dad disowned you and look at how we are living now. In a barely holding room of bricks which we call home.”

“ I know Annika but this isn’t going to change. It will only get worse.” her mom says wishing this wasn’t the case.

“They are boycotting us, mom. Forcing us to live the life we don’t deserve to. We should fight mum, against all of this. I’ll make them understand that I’m learning English so I can communicate with the British and also I can teach our people to speak so that they don't end up being cheated or taken advantage of…”Annika says with hope in her eyes.

“That’s a lost cause Annika,” her mom sighs ending the conservation and gets up and walks over to the corner of the room where the freshly washed clothes lay neatly folded.

“I can go and deliver this, it will take my mind of all of these things for a while,” Annika says offering to the job for other secret reasons.

Her mom is clueless about what’s bound to take place later and hands the clothes gratefully to her and goes outside to prepare dinner.

Annika grabs the clothes and hops off to the British secretary’s house. He is the appointed general to sit in their kingdom to note down the comings and goings of the Indian kingdom. She stands in front of a huge red-bricked bungalow which looks like a palace compared to her thatched house and knocks on the wooden door. The sound echos into the room and she straitens herself and stands in poised posture as she hears the footsteps rushing towards the door inside.

The door opens to reveal the worker who lets her in and informs her that the madam is in the kitchen and guides her there. The kitchen looks magnificent and she notices the madam cooking. The madam turns from her cooking and looks at Annika, and takes in her appearance, fizzy unwashed hair, mud smeared face with rags for clothes and frowns but is not rude enough to say anything. She gives Annika two annas for the washed clothes and asks her to leave them in the drawing-room which she told is just across the library.

Annika nods and turns realizing that the worker from before is nowhere to be seen. She takes it as a chance to do some exploring and looks around and opening all the doors until she stumbles upon the drawing-room. She leaves the clothes on the table and tries to walk out has fast as possible because she knew there was a library opposite to this room filled with books of English literature that her hands are itching to touch. She knows she shouldn’t trespass here but she gives in and slips into the room unnoticed promising to herself she wouldn’t touch or steal anything.

The room is filled with books of every size, color, and texture and it felt as if she was in heaven, but that’s not what caught her attention. What caught her attention and her heart too probably, was the letter with half a page written in slanting inked words resting on the table. She started reading it before she realized she shouldn’t read other's letter or she shouldn’t be here in the first place.

Dear Grandma,

 This is Michael here. I’m doing fine or at least pretending to be. How are you’ll? I don’t think I want to be here anymore grandma. I thought dad is helping the people here but he’s not. He’s actually doing the opposite. He is misusing their lack of knowledge on treaties and signatures. I tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen to me. I want to talk to the people of this village and help them, but I don’t know any- 

“ What are you doing here? Wait, who are you?” a voice whispers from behind her and she drops the letter and opens her mouth to shout but the hand which covered her mouth now drowned her voice.

“Woah, I didn’t mean to scare you, ok? I’m Michael. Nice to meet you. What’s your name ?” the boy who held her flips her to face him releasing her from his grip. “ Wait, you wouldn’t know English, would you? Of course, you wouldn’t know” he says to himself as Annika stands there in shock. She’s in a trance not by seeing how the boy had his blond curly locks falling on his fair and handsome face or not for his cherry lips for that matter. She was in a daze because of the letter she read just now and before she could stop herself she asks him “will you help me?”

The boy backs away a few steps shocked that she could speak English. “ You can speak English?” he asks gulping at her.

She appears unaffected by the admiration in the boy’s eyes and looks up at him questioning again with what looks like hope dancing in her eyes,“ will you help me tell my people that whatever you’ve written in your letter is true and that me learning English will only help them. It will not bring them shame or any harm?”

The boy grins at her as if he found the gem he was looking for for so long…and just stares at her with the grin stretching more by the minute.

“Well?” Annika stutters and shifts uncomfortably in front of the mesmerizing eyes of Michael. For the first time, she feels something she couldn’t describe or understand. It was all new to her, the feeling as if butterflies were dancing in her stomach and the sudden shyness to look up at Michael as he was clearly a foot taller than her, but that didn’t seem to matter.

 Michael clears his throat still unable to pull himself from the shock and daze he was put into by staring into the brown pools which held so many secrets in them. He felt as if it were calling out to his heart directly with no words or actions to convey.

“Michael, Michael the dinner is ready. Where are you?” a voice calls out bringing both of them to reality in an instant. Annika all of sudden seems scared and not waiting for an answer from him takes notice of the window and slides it to the other side and swiftly jumps out when Michael calls out asking her to wait.

She looks at him from outside dusting herself. It was not such a high jump. Just four feet from the ground and she was quick on her feet to do it. He breathes out relieved that she had not run away and says, “I can…I mean I will gladly help you. At the end of the day, we are all fighting for the same thing, aren’t we? Whoever it may be whether the dead and buried and the ones fighting to live or the ones that would spring in the future.”

She smiles at him and finishes, “so, why fight between ourselves when it’s not you and me but the problem and us!”

“ Will you come back?”, he asks eagerness dancing in his eyes.

“ well I’m not allowed to, but I'll certainly come...”