The Colorless Globe by Akash

The Colorless Globe by Akash - June 2022 Scholarship Essay

One fine evening, when I was in 7th grade, my parents decided to turn on YouTube and watch a movie while we ate dinner. After a few minutes of searching, we decided to watch Paa, a Hindi movie starring the Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan. The film’s protagonist is a young boy named Auro who has been diagnosed with progeria, a rare genetic disease that causes children to age much faster than normal: even though he is only 12 years old, Auro appears to be older than the age of 70. One day, Auro’s school has an art competition, and all the students submit their individual artworks. Auro also participates, but his art is not traditional in any sense: as his submission, he presents a globe painted completely white all around.
I have never been able to forget that scene. The depth of that message made my hairs stand on end, and I could see goosebumps on my arms: A pure white world. A globe with no lines--no territories, boundaries, or discrimination of any sort. A world of complete peace, tranquility, and compassion amongst all of its inhabitants. A perfect world.

After understanding the true, deep meaning of the artwork, I underwent a complete change of mindset, and I dedicated myself to helping our community become a better place for everyone. Since then, I have been collecting recyclables from my neighborhood and using the recycling money to buy nutrition bars, fruits, crackers, and other snacks. Everytime my family passes homeless people on the road, I distribute those snacks to them and receive their blessings in return. I also participate in many food drives where we distribute fresh food to underprivileged families without taking into account their race, gender, or ethnicity. Every week, we serve more than 250 families from all around our county, and if we have leftover food after the food drive, we donate it to a nearby homeless shelter. The most impactful experiences for me so far, however, have been my tutoring sessions with students in Africa. Each week, I teach math, English, science, and yoga to impoverished African children. I had started with only four students; I now teach a class of over twenty-five kids between six and fourteen years old. It has been an eye-opening experience: the poverty they live in is evident on their frail bodies. The school director, Ika, told me that many kids walk almost seven miles just to attend school. However, the contentment on their faces when they sit in front of the computer screen every week visibly negates all other emotions at that time.

I always used to think: Is it really possible to remove discrimination from the world? Is it really possible to make the world a better, more equitable place for everyone? It didn’t seem like a feasible goal. However, now, I think of the plain, colorless globe that Auro introduced to the world, I think of the beautiful smiles on my young African students, and I reassure myself that yes, that goal is attainable. We just need to work towards it.