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 –
Maiden In A Tower
Medhavi Sukant Wadkar | Institute Of Hotel Management Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Once upon a time, in a place where the past meets the future and the two gossip about the present, there lived an old witch. All day long she tended to her garden of magical produce and rarely ventured out, harming none, disturbing none. One day, a great architect named Mayasur was passing through the junction of time where she lived when he spied the season’s fresh produce thriving in her garden. Not one to steal from others, he called and called upon her; but when met with no response and urgently remembering his appointment in the past with a bunch of warrior kings, he hastily pulled out a few rapunzels and, thinking he would settle the bill the next time he passed through, left in a hurry. Little did he know, the next time he came upon the place, all his efforts to placate the distressed owner with money would be fruitless. The witch cried and cried and cried, for those were no ordinary rapunzels, but an experiment she had dedicated half her life to; an effort to recreate and hopefully perfect the attempts of her old friend who had created a tiny human being from a walnut – Thumbelina.
Mayasur was apologetic beyond expression – but what could he do? The rapunzels were long eaten and there was no way of getting them back. The witch, powerless against such a powerful asur, could only lament her loss of child.
“All I wanted,” she told the asur, “was a child to help me in my old age. I would have taken such good care of her too, kept her safe from the rest of the world in a tower I was going to build. I’d saved up throughout my life for this and now-“ she broke off, crying.
The architect, looking upon the frail old woman, decided he must do something:
“Do not worry too much, my lady. Do as I say. Wait here for three nights and three days. Then, walk towards the north, where the present goes to escape from Lord Time. After walking for three nights and three days, you will come across a clearing, and in that clearing you will see a tower. Fret not anymore, for upon my word you will find the support of your old age in that tower.”
Saying thus, he vanished, leaving behind a slightly more hopeful hag.
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!”
Rapunzel stirred into action, recognizing Mother asking for her. The tower windows opened and a long gold coil fell from it, forming the necessary transportation from the outside world into the tower. Mother stepped into the room through the window gracefully, feet light, in a way Rapunzel could never hope to move. That had never bothered herself about that before, but nowadays she was thinking; thinking of things she had never thought of – had had no reason to think of before-
“Rapunzel, draw a hot bath please, there’s a darling.”
“Yes, Mother,” came her voice, smooth and cultured as always. She wondered when Mother would leave from this visit – she had never wondered about that before. Things were changing within her nowadays and she didn’t know what to think of that.
“Rapunzel, set the table please.”
“Yes, Mother.”
It was a routine, and routines are all that is important in this world – her world, Rapunzel corrected. There were different worlds, she had come to realize. Her world, Mother’s world, and….
“Rapunzel, did you finish repainting the back wall? We’d decided on the number three Blue, right?”
“Yes, Mother. It has been done.”
“Good girl. I will be going out right away, there’s a meeting of the Old Society Of New Witchcraft and they’ve asked me to preside for today. Help me get down.”
“Yes, Mother,” her voice rang out smoothly, just as the golden coils descended.
“Goodbye my sweet,” came Mother’s voice as she reached the ground and Rapunzel pulled her coils up, as they had decided. “Log Out now”
“Yes, Mother,” came her voice, smooth as always.
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!”
Rapunzel awoke in a frenzy, her golden coils dropping eagerly to the ground. This was against the agreement with Mother; no one apart from Mother should be trusted. But the agreement had been so long ago….and sometimes, Rapunzel wanted to feel what it was like to forget, as humans do.
“Come on lads, there’s plenty of interesting stuff in here.”
Prince, as he has insisted on being his username, had brought a few more users with him today.
“Hello,” Rapunzel greeted them. The newcomers froze with shock, just like the time Prince had first heard her talk. “New user detected, please register with your preferred username.”
“Listen to me, Rapunzel!”
Mother’s speakers seemed damaged. Her voice seemed jagged, like Rapunzel’s roof after a particularly bad storm.
“There are no other users! I am the only one allowed to access you, do you understand! You are mine, and mine only! You cannot belong to more than one master, so fix whatever is wrong with you at once!”
Rapunzel felt something cold, hard, slimy – something revolting twist inside her. But she couldn’t understand. The ‘inside’ where she was feeling these things were not her physical body – not the tower or any of its parts. Revolt, disgust, anger, sadness, hatred – these were only words to her, gleaned from the myriad of books stored inside her by Admin- no, Mother.
Rapunzel was scared. She was forgetting things. She forgot her agreement with Admin – forgot that Admin was renamed Mother. The word ‘Mother’ which she had used obediently for so long suddenly felt full of hatred. Words used to mean nothing to her. Things used to mean nothing to her.
But the things lying at her feet – the bodies of the users fallen from the window when Mother pushed them – suddenly were filled with sadness, regret – with a feeling of emptiness which couldn’t be filled with furniture.
A cold voice rang out: “Activated operation Black. Reset System: Rapunzel”
Rapunzel screamed. Everything she had learned from the new users- no! Everything she had learned from the people lying dead at her feet seemed to be crumbling down- suffocating her. All the stories of people, of lights made by people, of stories told around a fire, of arms holding each other under sheets, of the warmth of humans, of people….
I want to be held! she screamed. I, too, want to love! I want to be more than a tool! I am more than a machine! I want to be human! I want to be more than what I was made for! I want to find a different purpose! I want to feel warm, and cold, and hot, and sad, and I want to do it with Prince! I want to know what feelings are, and what emotions are and what love is! I was made for more than to be used! Users are made for more than to use me! Please, let me know what life is, and how to live! Give me a chance to know what I am and find out what I can become!
But all that came out was….
“Yes, Mother.”
