A fairy tale

(The following piece is written by Shanti Limbu, a twelfth grader student of Samtse Higher Secondary school. She has a deep passion for writing. In this article she writes about how she bumped into a friend in a library and how common goals can bring people together. The story or perhaps a personal anecdote centers around friendship and sacrifice. I sincerely thank her for graciously contributing this creative piece of writing for my blog.) 

 Shanti Limbu

Do you believe in fairy tales? I never did but I do now. I was unaware of the circumstances that were going to turn my world topsy-turvy. I always knew my life was not the life of Cinderella or Snow White and no prince Charming would come to rescue me. But somewhere deep inside my heart the hope never died. I got his e-mail again and every time I looked at it I was overwhelmed with the hope that a God mother would come into my life and shift the course of it.

“You are wasting my money in all those rubbish you are writing, switch off the light!”, aunt Sonam ordered as usual. I stopped writing before I was announced any punishment for it. I gave a quick scan through the piece I had written. Satisfied I took a deep breath, chanted some prayers and switched off the light. The darkness would have stopped me from jotting down my imagination but it always failed to interrupt the whirlpool of the amazing ideas circling around my mind. I always knew that I had long way to go and sturdy voyage to complete.  I was confident  that I would be a great writer  but  was also in no doubt that it will never come true as long as I was in the house where everything I had was not mine.

“Yuck! The breakfast is gross Pelden”, yelled my cousin sister Kelzang. It was nothing new, the usual morning salutation. Every morning I had to wake up at 4:00 a.m and prepare breakfast, pack lunch for my ungrateful sisters and receive so cunning comments. Every day I woke up with the expectation that they would appreciate me or at least spare me one day from their excruciating remarks. But every day was the same though I left no stones unturned and tried to make it up to them. And the fact remained the same, there was nothing I could do, so I ignored the compliment as usual and headed towards the school.

Going to school was the best thing happening in my life. I enjoyed every lesson and second that I spent at Samtse Higher Secondary School. The class X ‘A’ was my home as my class mates always gave me that warm welcoming feeling which I never got at the house where I stayed and the worst thing was that I  will never ever get. I always thought it was what destiny had decided for me and what I actually deserved but it was not, until that day I realized that destiny had something else reserved for me.

Everyone was gathered at the notice board when I reached at school. I made my way towards the board and was jubilant to see a way to get rid of the house which never became my home and a family who never considered me a part of it. There was it the essay writing competition organized by the Tashi Company for the inauguration of their new book store and the winning prize was the scholarship to study in Ugyen Academy (U.A). I was optimistic that I had the potential to win the competition so I started collecting as much articles as I could from the library and the deadline was only a week away.

“’You can win’ by Shiv Khera, it’s a great book and definitely of your use for the competition”, he handed me the book. I glanced at the book and then at him, we exchanged smiles and introduced each other. He asked me to recommend him some books and we too sooner than I expected became good friends. We used to come to the library in every recess and prepare for the competition. Yoezer was a year senior to me, a very bright student and of course had more knowledge than I had. But I had full confidence that I would give him a tough competition.  

There was only two days left for the submission of the essay. Yoezer wanted me to give my views on his essay but he somehow forgot to bring it to the school, so we went to his house to collect it.

It was a medium sized house encircled by variety of flowers and a beautiful kitchen garden alongside a small canopy in front of the house. Everything looked so complete and welcoming that to my surprise I was getting keyed up to meet with the people inside the house. Then a small toddler came running towards Yoezer from the house. It was a bit unexpected that the kid jumped high to reach his arms and hug him. Everything happened so quickly that he couldn’t prepare himself for it and they both fell down hard on the ground but Yoezer someway managed to save the kid from getting hurt. “What do you think you are doing with my son ha?” a woman in her mid thirties came shouting from the house and snatched away the boy from Yoezer’s hands. “You killed your mother and now you are trying to bring that misfortune to my child? Stay away from my son!” she ended the warning by pointing an index finger towards him and rushed back to the house. Yoezer was hardly holding back his tears; he stood where he was for a moment trembling and headed in the opposite direction of the house leading to the path to my house. Petrified by the whole scene I couldn't move for a while and quickly followed him as soon as I was back to my sense.

“You know Pelden, winning the competition is my only way to a better life and I need to accomplish that by hook or by crook” he said to me with tears in his eyes and so much confidence in his voice that it kind of freaked me out as it was also my only way out to a better life. Then we walked quietly for some time and he narrated me the whole story of how his mother died as soon as he was born and his father started blaming him for the tragedy. The story did not end there, his father decided to remarry and very soon he was not any more his father but only a husband to his wife. Even I had the same story of how my parents died in a car accident and I landed up in my uncle’s house where I was not more than just a slave to my masters. But that was not important at the time because my parents never betrayed me. Both of us had the same destination, the same opportunity to reach it and I truly hoped that the deserving person would win.

I checked and rechecked and again corrected some grammatical mistakes, after reading about seven times I was certain that I would win because it was so authentic and the best piece I had ever written and perhaps I would ever write. It is said that it takes both rain and sunshine to form a rainbow but every day of my life was foggy so I had to create the rainbow myself, within me and I was sure that I was successful in creating one. The day I had desperately waited for finally arrived and I went straight to the staff-room to submit my essay. As everyone was asked to submit it together I looked for Yoezer but he was nowhere to be found. I asked Karma, his closest friend cum neighbor, for where he was about in the most important day of his life. We were frank enough for him to tell me the actual truth of his absence. He told me that Yoezer and his father had a huge fight after his step mother complained to his father of not completing the assigned work because he was busy writing. “This morning he told me, when I went to his house, that they had a long argument and his father finally ended it by tearing his essay, his dream and his only way to escape”. He took a deep breath in and after almost about half a minute released it ending the conversation by saying “Poor Yoezer, he always used to look for the chance to get rid of his family and when he finally found it”, he stopped for a moment to gather the courage to continue and said heavy heartedly, “anyway he wishes you the best.”. He went away with his gloomy face which was reflected out of the real concern he felt for his friend. It was really heartbreaking for me to know all that but anyway my strongest competitor was out of my way. I was enjoying the feeling of victory already.

Even after six months it brought smile on my face thinking that I actually thought that for a second. I looked at the message he sent me from U.A which said, “I never believed in fairy tales but you made me believe in it. You actually came into my life like those charming prince, charming princess in my case, and rescued me from the worthless life and made it worth living. Thank you for sacrificing the honor that you deserved. Sorry that I couldn't thank you personally. I had no courage to come in front of you and tell you to take back the honor that was yours or had the guts to thank you for giving me your rights. I can’t ask you to forgive me for my selfishness but definitely would like to thank you for making me realize that miracles do happen and fairy tales do exist. You truly came to my life as a god mother who filled my world with happiness with your magic wand.”

I distinctly remember how I wrote his name in my essay and submitted. I looked for him the whole week to tell him that his dream will come true but he never showed up. After that he had his common exam and I got busy with my boards. The winner was announced in the BBS during the vacation and I was really glad to hear his name. I was so proud of myself not only because I could trust myself to become a writer one day but also to know what I have done, changed somebody’s life.

My life is as same as it was before, the same school, the same house and the same routine. But I have changed, my beliefs have changed, the person who I was no longer exists, the one who always wanted to run away. I have evolved into a better person. I have started believing in fairy tales, may be because I have made someone believe in it. But I also have learned that sometimes we have to be the God mother and look for other Cinderellas rather than every time considering our self as one. We need to believe in miracles and one day God mother will definitely spin her magic wand and send a prince charming to rescue us.

Shanti Limbu