NewsPaper > Authors

Garoun Partakchyan's Stories

• “Quiet neighborhood” (Yerevan Is My Hometown)
• “What Do I Need?” (Foreigner? Refugee? Displaced? One of Us!)

Garoun Partakchyan's Page

“Quiet neighborhood” (Yerevan Is My Hometown)

We live on the ground floor of one of the houses situated near the Liberty Square. Can you imagine what it means to live on the ground floor? All the time, from morning till evening, our neighbors bounce a ball on the first floor. Thump, thump…the ball makes much noise and we hear the old woman living on the upper floor cry, “Tatevik, hurry up. Your homework, dear, your homework!” Then she yells at her other granddaughter, “Luso, come up, eat something.”

Noises come from everywhere, cars honk, people sell bleach calling out “Bleach, the best bleach today!”, others offer to try their tasty sour cream, or to buy their brooms.

We couldn't stand the awful noise of the street, so we moved to a quieter quarter. We don't regret having moved here from the noisy city center. From time to time I only hear Maneh- Mrs. Ofik's granddaughter read the letters aloud at one o'clock in the morning, “Capital letter A, small letter a, Capital letter B, small…” She reads until both me and her are asleep.

Wrote at 13 years old age

“What Do I Need?” (Foreigner? Refugee? Displaced? One of Us!)

It was Sunday. We were going to Vanadzor as a family. I was talking in the car:
“Father we need to repair my room, the door, the windows…”
Father gazed into my eyes for a while and said:
“Look around and you'll understand everything.”
I looked. There was a small house. It wasn't even a house; the paint had already gone from the metallic walls and there was paper instead of glass on the windows. But there was one thing which made the half ruined building look quite another way. Some refugee children played in front of the house which was large and beautiful for them. When I saw all these things; I thought my room needed no repairs.

Wrote at 13 years old age