Sunday, July 20, 2008
Slaying My Own Dragons
I read a lot of fairy tales as a child, and still find them fascinat
ing.. although with age i'm losing my ability to live a fairy tale and not just read it.. My grandmother would tell me tales of Guru Nanak she heard at the gurudwara where she spent her mornings and evenings.. and i'd translate fairy tales in return.
I remember having a favourite fairy tale when i was growing up.. the oldest fairy tale i remember being aware of is puss in boots.. on VHS, played over and over again till our VHS player breathed, or rather, play
ed, its last! But that wasn't my favourite.
My favourite fairy tale was longer, complicated, with twists and sub plots that changed depending on which one i read last. It had a princess and a housemaid, it had a wicked queen and ugly stepsisters, a handsome prince and a royal steed and of course the fire breathing dragon. In my head, all the works of the Grimm brothers..or at least the ones printed in my dog eared, broken backed copy merged together so i could play them in my head and be sometimes one character and sometimes another, for no childhood games did not begin with "lets pretend.".. and even alone, i'd play lets pretend a lot.. in "lets pretend" the trees became my allies and the wind obeyed my command.. foxes appeared to offer their tails to ride on and rejected bird feathers acquired magical powers.. i even hunted for and pulled out my mother's old NCC baton to fill in for a magic wand.. for my tale, of course, had wicked witches and absent minded sorcerers.. And i needed the magic wand to subdue the dragon.. an old kadi patta tree in the garden played the part as it was low enough to climb and pretend to be riding it.. high enough to pretend it was flying!
In all the tales i read, i never wanted the dragon to die.. i always wondered why the prince, or alternatively the knight, or the poor boy (the third brother, always the third brother!) couldn't just subdue the dragon and keep it as a pet instead of killing it. There was definitely something to be said for having a pet fire breathing dragon.. and as a ride, it promised to never go out of style! But the prince, or the knight or whoever else had to always prove their might by "slaying" the dragon.. and i always wondered why the dragons always risked their lives to guard the princess who seemingly never wanted to be guarded? Who put them up to it? Who were all those dragons working for? Why didn't they unionize? Couldn't they have just eaten up the princess and finished the story long ago?
My favourite tale, the one in my head, was different and changed each time.. sometimes it ended with the dragon becoming a pet or a friend.. the knight only had to reason with the dragon and turn it against the wicked witch or the evil queen.. but later, it ended with the dragon flying off into the sunset, leaving the prince and the princess behind to live happily ever after.. perhaps the dragon met another dragon and had a house on the clouds where they grew their own vegetables and read and watched the stars at night and lived happily ever after..
ing.. although with age i'm losing my ability to live a fairy tale and not just read it.. My grandmother would tell me tales of Guru Nanak she heard at the gurudwara where she spent her mornings and evenings.. and i'd translate fairy tales in return.
I remember having a favourite fairy tale when i was growing up.. the oldest fairy tale i remember being aware of is puss in boots.. on VHS, played over and over again till our VHS player breathed, or rather, play
ed, its last! But that wasn't my favourite.
My favourite fairy tale was longer, complicated, with twists and sub plots that changed depending on which one i read last. It had a princess and a housemaid, it had a wicked queen and ugly stepsisters, a handsome prince and a royal steed and of course the fire breathing dragon. In my head, all the works of the Grimm brothers..or at least the ones printed in my dog eared, broken backed copy merged together so i could play them in my head and be sometimes one character and sometimes another, for no childhood games did not begin with "lets pretend.".. and even alone, i'd play lets pretend a lot.. in "lets pretend" the trees became my allies and the wind obeyed my command.. foxes appeared to offer their tails to ride on and rejected bird feathers acquired magical powers.. i even hunted for and pulled out my mother's old NCC baton to fill in for a magic wand.. for my tale, of course, had wicked witches and absent minded sorcerers.. And i needed the magic wand to subdue the dragon.. an old kadi patta tree in the garden played the part as it was low enough to climb and pretend to be riding it.. high enough to pretend it was flying!
In all the tales i read, i never wanted the dragon to die.. i always wondered why the prince, or alternatively the knight, or the poor boy (the third brother, always the third brother!) couldn't just subdue the dragon and keep it as a pet instead of killing it. There was definitely something to be said for having a pet fire breathing dragon.. and as a ride, it promised to never go out of style! But the prince, or the knight or whoever else had to always prove their might by "slaying" the dragon.. and i always wondered why the dragons always risked their lives to guard the princess who seemingly never wanted to be guarded? Who put them up to it? Who were all those dragons working for? Why didn't they unionize? Couldn't they have just eaten up the princess and finished the story long ago?
My favourite tale, the one in my head, was different and changed each time.. sometimes it ended with the dragon becoming a pet or a friend.. the knight only had to reason with the dragon and turn it against the wicked witch or the evil queen.. but later, it ended with the dragon flying off into the sunset, leaving the prince and the princess behind to live happily ever after.. perhaps the dragon met another dragon and had a house on the clouds where they grew their own vegetables and read and watched the stars at night and lived happily ever after..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)