Time passed so quickly that I was barely able to understand when days became weeks, weeks became months and months turned into years. I saw people grow, slowly ageing up and turning into man, falling in love, getting married, having a family, having children, and their children coming to school again. I saw multiple generations of life. Some took their degree from the college and went abroad to study further while some stayed in the country.
Everything was going fine until some people thought otherwise. With advancement in technology and the mindset of the people, they demanded more than what they already had and so in search of betterment, they slowly started moving away from the town. The population of the village slowly started decreasing and with it also decreased the population of the students. Everything that has a beginning, has an end as well. To me, it seemed like my end! Students who went abroad for further studies now returned home to find their Rattory almost empty. They didn’t even like their own birthplace. Once these kids were happy playing in these very grounds, running all over the village and now they were ashamed to live in it as they thought this town didn’t match their standards of living anymore. Finally, I had no other choice but to accept the change that came with the chain of time. Everything had changed, the people, their hearts, their priorities and so did their pattern of visions, thoughts, behaviours and judgement change. Long gone were the people that I once knew. Their eyes didn’t reflect any love for me anymore.
“This must be destroyed, we don’t need it anymore. This place is large enough to build a big factory and we shouldn’t waste so much space for something that we don’t need anymore!”, one of them said. I was shocked. I was even more shocked to see that the others agreed with it. They were ready to destroy the thing that helped them build up their carrier up, gave them a bright future, helped them to see the truth that was hidden behind their lies and their own world of imagination. My roof provided shadow over their head and now they were ready to use that knowledge against me.
Within the blink of an eye, all the necessary steps were taken. All the preparations to break me down were taken in a jiffy. My brother was small so it didn’t take them much to smash him down into pieces. Right in front of my eyes, my little brother was gone within seconds. Pieces of him remained in the ground, lying all over. I was shattered seeing this. Now, it was my time. They looked at me with their merciless eyes. I wanted to cry but I didn’t. I took one last look at the beautiful sun and then sighed.
It is April 21, 1989. Their work is done. A huge industry now lies on the place where me and my brother used to stand. Rattory is now history. There now lies a huge city with a different name. Nobody remembers me anymore, nobody cares to know or ask what happened to me, as if I’m nothing and I was never there. Industrialization has taken over. The greed of wealth and riches played tricks with people’s minds. Their never-ending hunger for wealth changed them, turned them into something from where there is no turning back.
I was Rattory’s first educational college and my little brother was Rattory’s first primary education school. Rattory has no name of its own now and is a part of Italy’s largest province.
The Amateur's Scratchpad 