Does no one ever notice or at least try to listen to the deafening silence— so loud, so clear and so uplifting? The silence hadn’t always been the way it is now. It once used to be a radiant kind of pandemonium which brought voices together. It was a jumble of all sorts of untold stories and narratives. But those green voices began to wither and fade away, just like the autumn leaves under our feet. And quite similarly, these shrivelled leaves lay crumpled, barely even seen, let alone heard.
Sometime in the future, a day will come when no one would smell the indistinct scent of smoke in the air. They would not pay any heed to the subtle noise of a fire which had been recently kindled. The fire would crackle and brighten, gathering more vigour every moment in its wake. But no one would truly acknowledge it until it was too late. The fire would begin to transcend boundaries and fences, burning everything down with every merrily leaping flame. And surely, people would record that historical day in books. But they would never know that this formidable fire rose from nothing more than a bunch of shrivelled leaves. After all, no matter how long silence has prevailed or how forgotten it may be, it will never lose its capability to bring about change. Because, sooner or later, all silences are bound to be broken.
The echo of silence is by far the loudest. It reverberates clearly and meets our eardrums in its most refined form. Despite that, we are never truly able to tell what the silence wishes to convey. The silence does not speak in a simple manner, rather, it speaks with great complexity. And yet, it isn’t impossible to unravel all the underlying stories and voices concealed behind the intricacies of silence. We have been told that silence is sometimes the best answer. Some people are forcibly silenced while others voluntarily choose to silence themselves. And when both these kinds of silences come together, they become entirely too deafening and overpowering. As a consequence, the silence becomes omnipotent enough to destroy, not its surroundings, but itself. After all, those unheard and unnoticed stories come spilling out.
It is exceedingly easy to suppress a voice or turn a deaf ear to words which demand change. And everyday, more and more voices are subdued and crushed. But the question remains: how long will it be until all these unheard voices come bursting forth? Silence cannot be eternal— it can only ever be ephemeral. So really, it is only about courage, and courage comes with time, so no matter how long it may take, all silence will be broken to clear the way for reform. A voice carries forward ideas and hope. Meanwhile, silence becomes a reason for the erosion of faith and ambitions. Undoubtedly, therefore, we should raise our voices to save not just ourselves, but others as well. Because, quite essentially, our voices, thoughts and opinions are the only entities which will forever belong to us. And we must never lose them.
– Alvina Parvez, Amity International School, Noida
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