Jabagadadash 4.0, the International Intercollegiate fest of Chinmaya Vishwa Vidyapeeth was held on 24 February 2023. There was a blend of thrilling events conducted online and offline, inviting participants from across the nation and beyond! One of the events was  Twisted Tale – Story writing with surprise elements. Participants had to bring out the wordsmith within to reinterpret and rewrite classics. Here is a winning entry –

The World Beyond The Beanstalk

Adithya Kesav | Christ Nagar College Trivandrum, Kerala, India

Trouble always follows me around like I have a “Kick me” sign on my back and having a good heart has done nothing but made me look stupid. I’m Karna by the way, people who love me calls me…Oh wait, such people don’t exist. Life is hard when you are poor, especially in today’s world where life runs on money, it’s pretty messed up. Sector 15, where the poorest of the poor reside, was where I lived.

It was New Year’s Eve, hours away from a fresh new start. For others. Not for me. While people went to clubs and parties to celebrate their new year, I had my attic. The attic was by far the most interesting part of my house and my life. The deadly silence in my attic would creep everyone out but not me. I had peace here. This place is a part of me, with my things scattered over the room, messy and untidy but beautiful. “Don’t you want anything to eat, we only have a little ration and I don’t want to waste food for nothing”, the light yet hateful voice of my mom, Pritha. She was a gorgeous woman, with brownish red hair, which I also have. Her dazzling blue eyes always mesmerized the people around her. She loved me, at least that’s what people thought.

But I could see through the act. Maybe being a single mom wasn’t for her.

Next morning

Well, this year is starting out to be very lucky with me and mom having money for a week or so.

“Go to town and sell our car, that’s the only way left”, Mom said, with a sigh. A deep sigh showing how desperate she was to make money. My dad was a scientist. If he loved anything, it was his science projects rather than us. He left us even before I was born. God knows why. Ever since he left, the only thing saving our tummies was the farm plot she owned. It is pretty advanced for a poor family. With sprinklers, grinding machines and a tractor. Which she had bought after selling equipment from my dad’s personal laboratory.

It came as a surprise when my mom asked me to sell her car. It was her priced possession. But I agree, we quite obviously need money. This crap of a thing was as old as time and we’d be lucky if we even get ₹50,000 for it. But that is enough to keep us going for a long time.

Noir, an old abandoned mine in Sector 13-or at least legally. The only place to buy and sell banned items obtained illegally or magically. Sector 13 used to be the most controversial place years ago. It was more technically and magically advanced than all the other sectors until it turned into a no man’s land. No one knows what happened. Many theories revolve around this Sector. People talked about Giants that existed in Sector 13. But no one has seen them.

The money I’ll get for selling the car would be because of the neuromorphic chip inside it. All machines had it, so that the people could operate them with their thoughts. So, I had a reason to bargain the price with whoever decides to buy this. The car’s not a piece of crap after all.

At Sector 13

This place is swarmed with people. Weird people to be precise. Goons, merchants, wizards….

“Is that car yours?”, came a deep and grumpy voice. Suddenly a man appeared behind me. He had long hair, uneven beard and broken spectacles. He reeked of an unfamiliar odour and looked scared as if someone was trying to kill him.

“Trade these beans with your car”, he said

“What? This car for some beans? Are you being serious?”

“They are magical. These beans hold the truth about Sector 13. About the Giants and your father.” He murmured in my ears.

“My dad? How do you know him and what does he have to do with giants?” The shock in my eyes was so visible that even a blind man could see it.

“Take these, and you’ll know. I do not have much time.”

He left with the car, leaving me with those beans. The beans he claimed to be magical. Truth about the giants and my father. That is what he said. I never gave a damn that my dad had abandoned us. I never got to see him and he wasn’t a good husband to my mom. But I had always wanted to know the reason. The reason why he abandoned us. Why he made us suffer alone. I don’t know if I did the right thing by taking those beans. My mom will be so upset that I sold the car and I got are some beans. I have to rush back home, before it gets too late.

Home

It’s almost 4 in the morning and the lights are on. My mom is still awake waiting for the money.

“How much did you sell it for?”, she questioned with her sweet yet hateful voice.

“I sold it but I didn’t get any money.”

“What do you mean by you didn’t get any money?”

“I saw a man. He looked weird, like a scientist. He claimed to know dad. And he gave me these beans, magical beans. He said I will know the truth about dad with this”, my voice was breaking. I was scared of how she would react.

“MAGICAL BEANS? Are you a 5-year-old kid? We needed that money. Why did I even bother to raise you. Your father didn’t look after us. It was all on me. The house and you. I should’ve left you when I had the chance.”

I knew that she didn’t love me. But this moment. The words she just said to me. Those hurt me. I’ve never felt pain like this before. I can feel tears coming from my eyes.

“Give me those seeds.”, she took them from and threw them out of the window. “I don’t want to see you in this house again.”, she was arrogant and confident with those words. She really wanted me out of her life. Her words were sharper than a knife. Sharp enough to pierce through my soul.

The moment the beans touched down, the ground started trembling. A huge beanstalk sprouted out of the ground going high above the clouds. The leaves so broad that it blocked me from seeing the stars in the sky. The beans hold the truth. The weird man’s words kept repeating in my mind like broadcast from a broken radio. The soil at the bottom of the stem was elevating from the ground as if some energy was pulling it upwards. The beans were indeed magical. It felt like the answer to my questions lie above the clouds where the beanstalk went.

I began climbing it. My tall height always made it easy for me to climb trees. But this beanstalk is huge. Higher than any tree or any building I’ve seen. But it felt like those clouds were calling me up.

“Karna don’t, you’ve no idea what is up there”, the door opened and my mom bolted from the house. She was aware of something. She knew what was up there. I had to go up there. I had to know what my mom was scared of me knowing. I got hold of a leaf and suddenly it started moving up on it’s own like an elevator. I passed a wall. A wall which appeared to be made up of some kind of energy. The same energy I felt at the bottom of the beanstalk.

A floating city existed above the clouds. A city with a hell lot of technologies. Just like how people used to describe Sector 13. The buildings were 10 times bigger than what existed down there. There was a flag floating on top of a building which looked like a headquarters. “SECTOR 13” that’s what was written on the flag.

I take my first step forward and suddenly hear voices coming towards me. I ran to the nearest place I could find that would hide me. I saw two huge grizzly men walking by. They had messy red hair with pointy huge years. “OH MY GOD THEY ARE GIANTS. I’M IN THE GIANTS WORLD”. I was scared out of my mind. But I wanted answers. Maybe I could find the answers in the headquarters.

The buildings near me were huge enough to hide me from the passing giants. They looked more civilized than the humans down there. I made my way into the headquarters without being noticed. But what I saw there was surprising. Humans and giants working together side by side.

“Who are you?”, came a loud voice. A giant appeared behind me. I felt my heart beat stop for a second. It was either fight or flight. With my size, I had no option other than flight. I started running with my eyes closed. And when I opened them I saw a huge leg in front of me.

*thud*

“Is he alive?”

“I hope so”

“Why did you keep your legs over there?”

“He’s so small I didn’t even see him”, two giants fighting with each other like kids.

“Move, move. Out of the way”. This time it was a deep manly voice. Human voice to be

precise.

I couldn’t see anything properly. My head was spinning. Everything was blurred. They took me and made me lie down on a bed.

“He might have a concussion. Put him into sedation. Let him sleep for a while”

5 Hours later

I opened my eyes and saw a man standing in front of me. He looked like a doctor. In fact, more like a scientist-with a lab coat and his geeky spectacles. His ears were pointy and had red hair just like the giants.

“Hey kid! How are you feeling?”, he asked with a smile.

“I’m okay. What is this place?”

“Sector 13. And how did you come up here?”

“A guy gave me some magical beans. He said I’ll know the truth about the giants with them. It started growing when it fell on the ground.”

I didn’t want to tell a random guy about my dad.

“Oh those aren’t magical beans kid. It’s just science. Those beans had some chemicals which when touches the ground made it to genetically mutate itself and the result was a huge beanstalk.”

I was shocked when I heard this. It was something my dad would come up with.

“But sector 13 is a no man’s land”, I say.

He smiled and sighed “Before it became a no man’s land, it used to be a place full of science. Me and my wife, we were doing something crazy, we were trying mutations on humans. The same thing you saw with those beans. We wanted to know how much humans could grow if they were mutated. But we couldn’t find the correct formula. My wife got a little too excited with this project. She couldn’t rest until she found a solution. She was pregnant at that time. And this was badly affecting her. I was scared if something would happen to my child.”

“Then why did you continue doing it?”, I asked

“I tried to stop her, but couldn’t. She did something on that medicine and messed up the formula. It started spreading all over the lab and outside the lab. Spreading all over the Sector. We thought everything was okay. But the next day, people starting growing big. We couldn’t stop it. I tried to escape with her, but…she escaped on her own and left me to die. I didn’t even get to see my child. I don’t even know if they are alive.”

I felt something in my heart. As if I know who this guy is.

With a break in my voice, I asked “What was your wife’s name?”

He said “Pritha”.

With all the courage I could gather. I said “D-ad?”.

He looked as shocked as I was. We both didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t good with hugs and from the way he stood there, I realised, he wasn’t either. I am definitely his son.

“I’m Karna, dad. Mom named me Karna. All these years I thought you left us to suffer alone. I hated you. But I came here to find my answers and I got it. Mom doesn’t love me. She wants me to be out of her life. I don’t know what it is, but the moment I stepped here, I felt like I was in my attic. The place I love the most. It is messy yet beautiful. I think I belong to this place.”

My dad had a huge smile on his face “You are always welcome here kid”