An original essay on the penguins, written by our student Rishik Grover.

Rishik is 11 years old young writer from Gurugram. He loves cricket and music. We are proud to have him as a student of the Little Writers Program, an Online Creative Writing Program using Applied Storytelling & Theatre tools under the mentorship of Trainer Khusshbo Chokhaani. We congratulate Rishik for this exemplary true self-expression.

Penguins Are Not Animals

Imagine being a topper but people have been calling you a backbencher your entire life. Would you like that? I don’t think so. This is the life of penguins that have always been birds but are called animals just because they cannot fly. They can do everything that birds do – lay eggs, have feathers, are warm-blooded, and even have wings.

I think that if people could learn more about birds it would benefit them and the many suffering organisms like the penguins. This will finally help them get the attention they deserve.

Penguins are mentioned in the Māori folklore due to their origination area. The most famous story is of Tawaki, the god who disguised himself as a penguin. He climbed a hill and threw his garments away as the rain came gushing down the mountains. Many people thought he was just a normal penguin, but it was only after he covered himself in the clothes of thunder, they realize that he was actually a bird god. The Maori culture is home to the penguins that have been called animals their entire life.

People think that just because penguins cannot fly, they aren’t birds because many people associate birds with flying and penguins don’t fly.  The penguins have been suffering because of human ignorance and if people just start paying more attention to them everyone would benefit. People should know that birds have many more abilities and features other than flying. If we understand the difference between a bird and an animal only then can the penguin gain the feeling of recognition they’ve been waiting for ages.

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