Long long ago, there lived a merchant called Vijendra Gupta, who used to sell his goods by travelling to different places. One day, he decided to go to a place called “Pink city”. Entering the city, he saw everything was white. He was spellbound. The people were clad in pure white, the buildings, the carts around and to his surprise, the trees too were white. Shocked, he went and asked a boy who was playing nearby.
“Hi, little one, why is everything white here? Where is blue, pink, yellow or red and the other colours?”
The boy replied, “What is yellow, blue, pink?” he giggled and ran away.
Then Vijendra saw an old man. He asked him the same question. The old man looked down for a moment and said, “Sir! We had all the colours, but everything faded away because of a fairy’s curse.”
“But how?” asked the merchant.
“I’ll tell you now,” said the old man and began to narrate his story. “There used to be a fairy in our royal palace, She was as white as snow. She fell in love with the prince and proposed. He too fell in love with her as he was carried away by her beauty. After sometime, the Prince wanted to marry the fairy and sought the permission to the King.
One evening, the king, the queen, the ministers and all the other learned people gathered in the palace. The prince brought the fairy in front of the king. The king looked at the fairy and sarcastically said, “Huh! Are you going to marry this fairy? I would never give my son to this snowy.”
The entire palace burst into laughter. The fairy was embarrassed and started crying. Her tears wiped out the colours of the city. After hearing this story, Vijendra felt sad. He wanted a solution to this. He approached his best friend, the magician.
The magician said, “Vijendra! The only way is to bring back the fairy to the city. Now she dwells in a hanging green, lush garden which is beyond the deepest oceans and the highest mountains which are many in numbers. At the entrance of the garden, there will be a demon who is none other than the fairy’s father who died after the sad story of the fairy. He roams around without her knowledge, his only thought to safeguard her. Now your job is to kill the demon and bring back the fairy!”
The king ,the prince and the merchant went on a voyage. After overcoming many difficulties, at last they reached the entrance of the hanging garden where they conquered the demon. They went to the fairy and apologised and brought her back to the Pink city. The fairy took back her curse and gave life to all the colours of the city.
The prince and the fairy were married in a grand manner and began their life colourfully. The people of the Pink city were very grateful to Vijendra.
R. Aprana , V at DAV GIRLS HSS, Gopalapuram
