SPF: The New Age Fairy Tale

175-10-october-2nd-2016

The New Age Fairy Tale

Words 200

“Tulika! Don’t be a fool! Come away from the ledge.” Naina urged.

“Aakash dumped me. I flunked my exams.” Tulika wept.

“So what? You can try again!”

“It’s all over for me. But you won’t understand. You are brilliant.”

“Really?”

“You cleared the Army Officer’s exam.”

“You don’t know anything about me or my journey. Would you like to know?”

Tulika nodded. Naina pulled her to safety.

“My husband died when I was expecting. My in-laws kicked me out.”

“No!”

“Homeless and unemployed, I contemplated ending my life. But I couldn’t afford to wallow in self-pity or wait for my knight in shining armor. I had to rebuild my life – for my son, for myself.

“Then?”

“I shifted to my parents. I took up a teaching job. But I wanted more. I zeroed in on the army.”

“But getting in is tough!”

“Nothing worthwhile is easy.”

“What about your son?”

“Mother took care of him. I would get up at 4 am for physical training before school. Evenings were for my son. And nights for studying.”

“You are brilliant.”

“I failed the entrance exams four times.”

Tulika was silent.

“Well?”

“I think we need to rewrite our fairy tales.”

***

Inspired by a true story

Written for the Sunday Photo Fiction – a story in 200 words or less. Click here for more stories on this prompt.

For readers of Moonshine, here's Chapter 89 and Calvin

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Dahlia

Email me at mysilverstreaks@gmail.com or tweet me @mysilverstreaks

29 thoughts on “SPF: The New Age Fairy Tale”

    1. I did struggle a lot with the way to present the story and tried several versions before I settling on this version. But to tell the truth I was still not very confident. Thank you for the vote of confidence – means a lot 🙂

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  4. The fact that it is inspired by a true story makes it even better. Using the image as a metaphor to explain the hard work, the failures and getting through. I like it. It reminds me of a saying “The master has failed more times that the student has tried”

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  10. This story became my favorite. A much-needed one it is too.

    Just these few days, I have been worrying over trivial things – reading this make me realize that, we all have failures – even people who seem so successful and perfect. And it is okay to have them, you just need to go on. And I have to remind myself that reaching my goal and journey involved is important, not how quick I do.

    So, thank you for that.

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    1. We all need the reminder ever so often. Moreover, failure is also necessary, keeps us on our toes 😉 😀 And IPK taught me that – the journey is important not the destination 🙂

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