Reflections

Once upon a time in a place far, far away from where you are currently reading this tale, around the 21st century. So that’s not all that long, long ago either. There lived quite a lot of people who existed in harmony in a village. Well, actually it's a school but well it goes with the flow I guess. Among this was Princess (of course self-proclaimed! Where would one ever find any princess rich enough to be one and still be sentenced to imprisonment in a classroom when she can be homeschooled) Dorothy Elizabeth James the first, but people usually just called her Dora because she was the exact living replica of a kids’ show called Dora’s adventures .Yes, you guessed it right! That show is for kindergarten kids and so was Dora -she lived in cloud castles in her dreams, and could not tell the difference between dreams and reality.

The hot sun spurted light on her face from the creeks between the curtains which she ever so blissfully ignored to shut the last night. All of a sudden she could hear the noise of her ever squeaking ceiling fan become longer as it dragged itself towards the final breath which obviously was not very comforting. She finally gave in to the malicious power-cut and gave up her precious dream (most of which she could not recollect).

She wondered to herself "Why was Greg a rabbit? And what was with the wicked thermodynamics equations? Why were they chasing me down the hole?” She blinked blankly and scratched her brunette krakens nest of a mane and suddenly it dawned on her "Exam!!!"

 

So she helplessly smiled and reminded herself, “The dragon must be tamed,” even if it breathes "The laws of thermodynamics" fire upon her golden armour of a report card. So our Dora scuttled of to the bathroom straightening the pajamas riding up her knees and wondering how Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty have their perfect mornings with the chirping of birds and how Ariel with her lark like voice sent music riding upon the sweet breeze while our Dora here sounded like the shipwreck that needed the rescue! She waltzed in the swoon of her imagination as she hunted for the sun's dramatic limelight in the ballroom of her dreams which was actually just a tiled bathroom floor with a shower and her dirty laundry. She did this as she brushed her metal barb wires marking the territory of her teeth (yup, her braces). And, as he took a bow before her majesty behind the stained mirror hanging on a miserable rusty wire above the sink, she slipped on a cake of soap and TIMBER!

Hearing the unexplainable curses in parseltongue by our fair damsel, the mother called out to her and reminded her how late she was for school. She had inherited but one character from her-the noble art of clumsiness and so Alas! Her carriage had turned into a pumpkin and she missed the bus.

 

So she put on her' little red –I’m late to school-hoodie 'and the next 15 minutes was a frantic run for the school before the clock struck nine (of course not 12...which school begins at midnight?!)

As she huffed and puffed like Thomas the engine there in the distant horizons she saw the school gates and her trusty peon almost rang the bell when she stumbled in just to let out a short cry “No! Wait!" He sighed and shook his head while she said "Who the man? You, the man!" The peon reminded her of Grumpy-one of Snow White’s dwarfs...he was a sweetheart and waited for her to make it in. But as soon as she did he began rumbling and grumbling and lecturing her on how to act like a lady.

Stumbling on to the classroom grounds she noticed the nerd clan in preparation for the upcoming battle (uh huh...the thermodynamics pop quiz). Among them sat another timid prince charming, her best buddy, Greg- or as she called him Sir Gregory of Nerdonatia. He nervously held onto his glasses as the other girls sat gaping at him. Dora went up to him and said "Hey  ...I saw this crazy dream about you today and..." But before she could narrate her story to her buddy a bunch of girls with fat textbooks conquered the lad’s attention…Which of course according to Dora was no less than that of a goldfish when she was speaking to him. She smiled and shook her head as she walked away.

And then the wizard stepped in and Dora found her seat next to Hansel, Gretel (they were her non-blood, soul siblings)and the mind reading Oz(well it’s nothing much…Just that they had an unbelievable mental synchronization), her 'homies' or 'brethren' or whatever the new street slang was...she proudly does a knuckle bomb, their signatures 'bro fist'. The sunny skies suddenly break tear into an incessant rain as the teacher hands out the pop quiz worksheets...and as Dora received hers she turned as white as the sheet itself. She wished she could drop a few beans out into the rain and ride up the bean stalk. She'd rather give the man eating giant in the skies a visit than do that test paper. She glanced at Greg and noticed that the brave knight was ready to tame his dragon. He turned around and signaled a reaffirming thumbs-up at Dora. "I might as well tame mine”, she sighed and set foot into battle. After an hour of war with pens and calculators, Dora scraped through scorning at the malignant ever ticking clock that never set her free. She turned to Greg to tell him how her paper was a disastrous backfiring spell but his goldfish self, took over and the monotonous bell got his attention. He realized he didn’t have the scalpel to dissect the frog in the lab. In fact, he knew he was in big trouble and so he shuffled around and thought and thought the matter over and over again until he finally decided to face the music and give in to whatever deal Prof.Rumplestiltskin had to throw at him. Actually, his name was Prof.Whiteston. The kids just called him that because of his insane ideas and mood swings and unbelievably senseless punishments. (Unfit for "normal "high-schoolers)"Dead meat”, Greg said to himself as he made the march to the funeral ground of his frog awaiting him on the dissection table and probably also the funeral of his nerdish dignity.

At the lab, Dora found many a meek princesses fainting at the sight of their 'frog princes'! But Dora was used to all the gore…She was a boy at heart despite herself. She made a second attempt to talk to Greg when she saw him nervously approach his bench. But of course in vain as he was already preoccupied by other matters poking him like scalpels!

 

Much to Greg's surprise, he found a scalpel on his table with a note that said "Chill! I've got your back big guy!" He began to smile to himself and his face turned so red with excitement that he'd give the 'tomato' a competition!

Dora was having a super bad day as surprisingly enough she did not have her scalpel. As Rumpy approached a white Dora, she felt like she was choking on a poisoned apple. In fact, she could just gobble anything when she was scared. Fear was one among the many million things that triggered her appetite. "Prof .Rum...um…Whiteston...I...don't think I…I’ve misplaced my...”

"Stop fumbling missy. What is it? You couldn't possibly have forgotten your scalpel now, would you?" Rumpy smiled demonically, sadistic pleasure gleaming and glistening in his black, beady eyes.

"Well…yes sir...as a matter of fact I..."

She could almost hear his evil laughter resonate when he continued to pass his verdict and declare Dora guilty.

"Detention!” He said. She sighed. "Phew! That’s not so bad. I can deal with that." she thought to herself.

“For the next one week" Ah great! I guess I thought too soon.

 

In the detention room which was on the highest floor of the jail, I mean school, she sat hoping no gallant knight comes to rescue her or asks her to let down her hair. Firstly because she hates people pulling her hair, I mean imagine the weight of a healthy muscular prince on her unsuspecting delicate head and hair. But secondly, she couldn’t stand the humiliation of being let down by her best ’the good deed of the day’ in ages.

So, while our damsel, whom by now, all would have figured out (all except the genius Greg, of course) sacrificed her precious scalpel (should have been Excalibur or something huh? It would have sounded so much cooler...) felt cheated by her fairytales. All those stories of happily ever after and all the kindness begets kindness anecdotes mocked the worst day of her life. She felt cheated by all the "moral of the story is" that she grew up with and she craved for a fairy godmother more than anything else in the detention room. That’s when her teary eyes set themselves upon a dusty old mirror. She wondered what an antique mirror was doing in a stuffy old cobweb lined library of inspirational "How to win friends?", "How to be a better person?", "How to speak confidently in a crowd?" sort of books.

She took a step before the mirror and spoke to the miserable princess Dorothy that she saw in it, "What went wrong and how did I get to this. They say being good is better than being great. Well, it isn’t anymore!”  Now don’t ask me why Dorothy was seeing things. It could have been claustrophobia and the frustration of being surrounded by dusty books, it could have been her empty stomach that lay grumbling all day, it could have been the incessant tears that our brave lass could not hold back or it could have been magic.

Whatever it was, Dora saw the Dora in the mirror shuffle. So she tried to stay very still and hold herself as she helplessly sobbed and when she did so, she saw herself speak “Whoever defined fair for you? As it always was something you can skim from the surface, or rather a little voice in your heart. Grow enough to make a sacrifice unconditionally and never expect anything in return." Like Oz says, "Expectations hurt!” As she looked for answers all around in the world she forgot to seek it within herself. She laid down her questions one by one. She got one answer which lay deep within her and as she stared right back into her dark eyes behind the wet lashes, some sort of mysterious music in the silence lulled her to sleep.

When she woke up and went home she knew she had done the right thing(...no not sleeping through detention...), realizing herself and somewhere the purpose of existence to spread smiles to people who matter, which were all of course thoughts to be left for old jobless thinkers to ponder upon. She had more important things to do-like annoying her mom or messing with her own mind and whiling away her precious time watching on television the never-ending wrestling matches and the telebrand items that she’ll never buy.

And so, when she went to school the other day she surprisingly made it on time and Grumpy didn’t even grumble, in fact he actually smiled and turns out she hadn’t flunked thermodynamics after all and a little message said, "Thank you buddy. You should know I've got your back too whenever you need it!" was left inside one of her books with a friendship bracelet right next to it.

Dora never figured how things seemed themselves right again. But they did and the more time she spent with Dorothy, the more she sought within herself, the more treasures she discovered. You need to sometimes walk up to your mirror and ask "Who is the fairest of them all?" Sometimes, you need to give time for the water to be still enough for you to reflect. But when you do find yourself you will probably realize that the joy of giving to the world, and loving yourself blend in perfect harmony even for the most imperfect of the world's inhabitants. Sometimes you need to look into yourself, like the lyrics of 'I Have A Dream' which says

 "If you could see the wonders of a fairytale...

You could see the future even if you fail...

  I Believe in Angels... Something good in everything I see..."

Maybe someday you’ll realize you can rescue yourself-that you are beautiful enough to be fallen in love with, look within and you will discover the magic of the happily ever after within you. That magic which lingers because of the passion and love with which you were created .You were never born to fail. You were born to grow and to be!