The mesmerizing world of Fairy Tales

A child's mind is fascinating. He is intrigued by all that he sees. Filled with innocence, his mind  readily absorbs the multiple plausibility of the circumstances around him. He acts like the curious Alice and discovers a wonderful world of magic carpeted under the mundane and the ordinary. After all, Ms.Rowling has offered an explanation to all the 'Muggles', who fail to see the magic around, crippled by their limited perceptions.And then, when this curious mind is eager to learn something more about the world in which he thrives, he is suddenly introduced to a colorful book with many, many interesting pictures. Weaving all those pictures is a story beginning with a curious line,"Once upon a time in a far far away kingdom, there lived a king and a queen.."

 The young reader,with a smile playing on his lips, is immediately charmed by the wonderful world of fantasy and make-belief, a world where anything and everything is possible. Be it the the triumph of the underdog in 'Cinderella' or the mystical world of love in 'The Beauty and the Beast', the undoing of the wicked witches in 'The Sleeping Beauty' or 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'- their enticing space never fails to allure them. This bewitching world is composed of some stock characters who define Good and Evil. There is a structured plot, a conflict,the magical twist coupled with the resolution of the conflict marking the triumph of the Good over Evil. Simple and easy. A perfect ending for an imperfect world. The young readers clap hard when the Evil grovel on the dust while the story ends ascertaining everlasting happiness for the Good, ".....and they lived happily ever after. THE END."

These stories are read, re-read and re-read yet again with unfailing enthusiasm. They become the part and parcel of a young one's growing-up phase. They inspire them to emulate the good deeds and to be fearful of misconduct. It becomes so deeply ingrained in our hearts that every second girl begins to believe that she is a princess cut out for something extraordinary, while chivalry comes naturally to every little boy who is always up and about to rescue a damsel in distress. But why such affection for a story so unreal? Why do these characters of the Utopian world  inspire nothing short of perfection from the imperfect mortals? Well, perhaps in the questions lie the answers. Fairy tales in representing a beautiful world offer a different perspective to the ordinary. To be simply put, cutting across boundaries of time and space, we live in a fairy land ourselves. Each one of us is the hero or the heroine of our very own fairy tales. We believe in the higher realities governing life such as virtues that'll forever bring about goodness in return. Believing whole-heartedly in a fairy tale actually gives us an opportunity to step out of the griefs suffocating our lives, and thrive in the excellent abundance of new found happiness. The malaise rotting the society's core is rejected as poison or curse-a curse that can be ruled out by something positive, Hope,maybe ?

As Neil Gaiman puts correctly, "Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons are beaten." In fact, a 'fairy' is really an embodiment of this immortal Hope, a symbol of Belief that channels the goodness within us. This hope of betterment is always guiding our deeds, protecting us from evil in the manner of the gods and the goddesses of our particular religious faith. Believing in the sheer existence of this external power that can transform our lives 'magically' is bestowing faith in somebody beyond us, somebody who we blindly trust. Thus these magical tales of fancy can be viewed upon as the bedrock of our philosophy of life. These figments of imagination define our role in this temporal world. They quietly carve out a figure who inspires all that we do in our lives. And we don't even realize that, do we?

"Cutting across the divide between real and unreal,

Let us seek the pleasure of a world so surreal.

Come along you fairies! It's time for for some magic,

Time to create Happiness and drive away all Tragic.

Let the wondrous blossoms cheer your eyes,

Let the wizard's blessing turn you wise.

Revel in the world of impossible's possibility,

Make merry, in the land of endless mystery."

                                                                         (-self-composed)

While we fret and fume over the daily battles of our life, we secretly seek an outlet to this mysterious land  where dreams come true. It doesn't turn us into escapists, but helps us understand reality in better terms-the reality which is in itself incomplete without the touch of the unreal. It is this unreal that brings back the glimmer of ecstasy when one turns melancholy, and makes us believe that "all dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."(to quote Walt Disney)

So finally,when arrives a question which makes us wonder if such stories of the unreal world teach us anything useful, it only makes me laugh and say," But baby, we are a part of these stories!" and when we are a part of a continuous action, logically, we are learning something new each moment of our lives. This unspoken connection between the real and the unreal is intriguing indeed. It simply gets "curiouser and curiouser". Perhaps the reason why we are still besotted by such tales is because they teach an important lesson of life. They help us cope with endless  hurdles and make us strive towards our goal. And they reassure our faith in the fact that God or some higher power is watching all of us and taking into account all the good and bad we do. And one day the Good will triumph.  Hence each and every moment we desperately crave for that perfect "happy ending"...an end that we believe we deserve. So carry on living, do not stop believing. This very belief in turn is the key to our survival. The least we can do is to safeguard the key...the key to our dreams....the time we will be entitled to live "happily ever after"..The End.( where the end is only the beginning of a new tale...)

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda

(Psst...feels great on being awarded the WOW badge for this post)