Short Story....

Cinderella....   


  Long long time ago, far far away, there lived a beautiful maiden who was soft and loving, just the way her parents had raised her. When she would sit near the banks of the river, all the birds and the bees would hover around her, whispering sweet nothings. They just loved her like everyone in the village for being a princess she was humble and ever loving. But tragedy struck and Cinderella lost her mother. 


This made Cinderella withdraw from the world and was completely reserved. Looking at the plight of his daughter, the father thought it best to get married again as a mother plays a vital role in every child’s development.  The second marriage took place, but the step-mother never replaced the real mother, in fact it only got worse. After the two step-sisters entered the scene, Cinderella was reduced to a slave – and was made to do all the washing, cleaning and cooking. Her days never ended and the wicked siblings only made it worse. They gave her their old torn clothes to wear and never allowed her out of the house. Poor Cinderella would cry every day to herself. 


Nevertheless, the days passed into months and months into years and Cinderella blossomed into a beautiful girl. This made her step-sisters very jealous. One day the king of the land had a ball for his son to find the love of his life. And so the soldiers came to every home that had spinster girls and read out the invitation. The step-sisters rejoiced and got to thinking about the ball and what would they wear to appease the prince. At the back was Cinderella who heard the invitation and yearned to be at the party. But how? On the day of the ball, the sisters looked their prime and the mother tucked her waist to where she could not breathe and left her slave daughter to do the cleaning. As Cinderella at in the kitchen crying there was a burst of light and in it appeared a lady dressed in white. Who are  you, she cried. Your fairy godmother said the lady. And why are you here. To dress you up for the ball. 


But how, said Cinderella I have only old rags to dress in. Well that’s why I’m here said the godmother and with a swish of her wand she dressed Cinderella and made her hair.  Wow, said Cinderella but how am I to go to ball. And with another swish the melon in the garden turned into a carriage and the white mouse that ran around in to two mighty horses. Cinderella hurriedly climbed into the carriage but before she could go the Godmother said, you have time till the clock strikes 12 and with that she vanished. The prince stood amazed when he saw Cinderella entering the ball. He was stunned by her beauty, making every lady turn green. He asked for her hand and danced away. Even the step-sisters failed to recognize her as she had groomed herself like they had never seen before. But the clock struck 12 and before Cinderella could say a word she ran away from the prince and immediately turned into her old ragged self. The prince was devastated and ran behind her, only to find her glass slipper and nothing else. 


The very next day he made his soldiers take the slipper and go around the kingdom to find the foot that fits in it. And they searched in vain until they fell upon the step sister’s house. The girls tried to force their leg in but it did not fit. As they were about to go one of them spotted Cinderella and asked her to try. The sisters said it was no use as it would never have been her. But the soldiers insisted and so Cinderella stepped forward and it was a perfect fit. 


The prince had found the love of his life and they lived happily ever after..  

Another man's folly  ....... He paid the price for another man’s folly. One life gone, 2 people dead !

A mother is devastated, she is howling with pain, yelling all she can in that dark and dingy corner of her four by four kholi. There was nobody to hear her yell and not a soul to pacify her, because outside her shack is a long winding lonely road. There was no existence of mankind for miles and miles ahead. The wind was at rest, the leavesdidn’t rustle and no resonance of a barking dog, silence filled the air. Loneliness was already killing her, but no one knows what made her cry?

Losing something you love with all your heart isn’t really the grief you can ever overcome. Radha lost her baby. Her only means to live. She saw her child getting crushed under a car in front of her own eyes. Blood was all over and the accident was terrible. One lonely night, she was walking  down the street t get a breath of fresh air with her child cuddled tight in her arms. She walked a long time s till she saw the face of mankind (in the evilest form).

The whole time she walked with her child in her arms the only thing that worried her was Aryans (her son’s) future. What kind of a person will he be? Will he make me proud? How much light is life going to bring in his existence? She was imagining and feeling every day of the Childs growth, and what she had in store for him. But who knows what’s in store for us tomorrow, life can change in the splits of a second. Talk about destiny, all those dreams hopes and expectations were snatched away from her in an instant. Her smiles were frowns and her faith just crumbled, like a deal soul in a living, rather breathing body.

This is how it happened…. On that abandoned road, were a few streetlights barely sufficient? There was this one light  that was visible from a distance, but as it came closer it got brighter and brighter. That light changed radha’s life into darkness forever. A speeding car came down that road, as if the driver had jammed theaccelerator, cutting across the wind. He came at a speek of 110kmph throwing beer bottles out of his half open window. He was definitely drunk, the speed took everything in its path.  Just then, there was a loud cry, and silence set in again. The cry of a baby and no sight of a child.

Ironically the mother wasn’t hurt, not a scratch on a body, not a bruise on her arm. She opened her eyes and didn’t she Aryan, her vision was blur. After a few minutes when her sight cleared up she looked all over frantically for her baby, but alas! There was nothing. Just then she noticed something about then feet away it was blood draining into the gutter’s, and pieces of minced flesh, laying there saying so much without saying anything at all. The blood of her baby, the child who hadn’t even seen life,

He paid the price for another man’s folly. The same little child whose future was just being planned.

Simple, don’t drink and drive. You could take a life, but kill a number of people.

~By Nisha Malhotra~