A Rose by any other colour

six year old ram insisted that he have a bath everyday- even when he was sick. Not that it was unusual in anyway - but living in the ever cold northern hemisphere as he was, his sudden cleanliness frenzy seemed odd. Ram took to scrubbing himself repeatedly and kept smelling himself often. His mother dismissed his new fad as a passing phase. But she could not likewise dismiss his poor show at school. His latest report card left much to be desired and that was something very atypical. His drooping grades made his mother pull him up for a gentle "trouble shooting talk". It was then that Ram found the courage to ask, "Mom, do brown people stink?" The mother was alarmed, "who said so?". "Them boys at school. They keep teasing me, say I'm brown, so I'd stink...tch! I wish i were not brown. I wanna be blonde like them" said Ram in chaste Americanese. The mother was upset. As a lone brown kid in an international schook, she knew her son would have to face such discriminations bravely. His quivering voice made her want to reach out and smoothen his troubles - but she did not know how, she could not change his skin colour, could she?