An original story on bullying written by our student Harshvardhan Singh Shekhawat.

Harshvardhan is 13 years old young writer from New Delhi. He is enthusiastic about sports, and music. We are proud to have him as a student of the Little Writers Program, an Online Creative Writing Program using Applied Storytelling & Applied Theatre tools under the mentorship of Trainer Khusshbo Chokhaani. We congratulate Harshvardhan for this exemplary true self-expression.

The Delhi Horse Show 2022

Imagine your friends turning their back on you. How would you feel? You may feel disappointed or sad about losing the company of friends. I was heartbroken. My heart burst into a million pieces because I was all alone.

This happened to me at the Delhi Horse Show 2022 (One of the biggest horse-riding competitions in India). Suddenly, all my friends became foes. They turned into bullies. They bullied me every time they got a chance. All the bullies made sure I come late to practice in some way or the other. They made me feel left out. I wished I wouldn’t be selected so I wouldn’t be hated so much. I started doubting and rejecting myself.

Everybody started sabotaging my goodwill and took advantage of me every time they could for their benefit. The worst was I let all this happen despite knowing the reality. Because of these people, their abuses, and discouraging words I got discouraged. No matter how much I tried to be good to them,  they were nasty and mean. They showed they were my friend and made me believe their lies by hiding their cruel plans. Getting discouraged at this tournament was a very bad scenario because many senior journalists and trainers came to watch. This is a competition in which people get a great opportunity to build a career in riding and makes your resume credible. This was the reason why it all became a problem for me to get a good position and get noticed by senior trainers.

To solve this I knew that I had to ignore these kids. But that wasn’t very easy considering their room was right next to mine and they were supposedly my roommates’ best friends.  Such kids can never be anyone’s friends. Slowly, Slowly I learnt to put up a strong face. I learnt to take a stand for myself. I started being more adamant and didn’t listen to their lies. I found two other kids who were against their irritable ways too and I started hanging out with those kids more.

I thought now they would let me be, but this just made them more into making me look like a fool or as they said. “Ignoring us will not work kiddo.” Every day they saw me, the evil look on their faces made chills run down my spine. I didn’t eat and my stomach ache got bad. My mom came to pick me up. I told her all about this and my dad made me realize that they were scaring me because they knew I was the only person who would get scared of something like that. My parent’s words motivated me. I vowed that I will face my fears. One day I went up to them and told them, “You know what paying attention or being scared of people like you is not worth. You just concentrate on the weak link, but I’m not going to pay heed anymore so good luck finding in someone else.”

The next day was my first event. I acted ignorantly and responded confidently to their threats and their teases because none of them had the guts to even come near me or my buddies anymore. I secured silver in my first event. I was so happy and loved the miserable look on their faces. After this, I never felt sad when someone bullied me but became more confident, brave, courageous, and street-smart.

I made a lot of new friends and genuinely good friends. I hoped I would have become more confident sooner. This event changed me and how I lived life. It made me stronger, confident, and an all-around much better version of myself.

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