“Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl called Cinderella and she had two ugly stepsisters…..”
“Amma,” my little boy interrupted before I finished reading the first line of his first fairy tale.
“Bootifu? Huggy?” he wanted to know what ‘beautiful’ and ‘ugly’ meant. It was a difficult subject to deal with a kid, so I just pointed to Cinderella and her stepsisters in the picture as I said ‘beautiful’ and ‘ugly’. I was sure he wouldn’t get what they actually meant. In fact, I didn’t want him to.
A little down the book.
The prince said, “I shall marry the beautiful girl whose foot fits this slipper and only her.”
“Bootifu?” he asked me again. Safely, I pointed to the picture of Cinderella again.
“Maggi?” now he wanted to know what ‘marry’ is. Uff! I didn’t know fairy tales can be difficult too.
This time, I pointed to the prince and then at Cinderella and made a smiling gesture to show him that,
‘marry = smile = a positive emotion’.
I don’t know what sense my equation made to him but it struck another equation from his little brain. He ran to his book shelf and brought his big farm book. It’s an interactive book for kids that features five little children: Eddie, Sophie, Tessa, Digga and Mia. For your imagination, I’ve tagged all of them in this picture. As one can see from the picture, among all the children, the character of Tessa is created as a dark-skinned, perhaps unattractive girl to some, and for some reason, she’s my boy’s favourite of all.
He pointed to the prince and then to Tessa and made a smiling gesture with a question mark on his face. And all that my little boy was curious to know was, “Prince maggi Tessa?
I stared at him for a while. So he understood what ‘bootifu’ and ‘maggi’ meant? Unbelievable!
Now I was left with no option but answer him.
I asked him, when he grows up to a prince, if he would smile at Tessa? Without thinking, he said, “yes.”
“Then, if the prince is as nice as you, he will smile at Tessa too,” I said.
He thought for a while until he related all the facts from the start and finally gave a smile.
He seemed delighted for his favourite Tessa shall be acknowledged by the prince!
Posted for ‘Indispire Edition 73‘
What if Cinderella was ugly, yet virtous kind and courageous? And her Step Sisters were pretty and yet ruthless and mean? Whom would the prince choose? #Cinderellawithatwist by Ramya
Photo Courtesy
Header Image: @InspiringThinkn
Cinderalla’s Stepsisters: www.haikudeck.com
Cinderella: shake-it-up-fanon.wikia.com
I did not read Cinderella, I have seen one animation movie though. Going by the words from the book here, I think this classic ought to be ignored henceforth?
Destination Infinity
Haha! I felt the same when I wrote these lines. Not just Cinderella, all fairytale princesses are beautiful and all prince are handsome. It might be good for their imagination but it might also misguide children to conceive the idea of beauty at a young age. There are several such kids stuff that seem unnecessary. Why humpty dumpty had a great fall, why jack and Jill fell down from the hill, why London bridge is falling down, why pussy cat was pushed into the well, why ring around the roses and all fall down. How many can we ignore? We need to rewrite, almost every one of them!
This is so beautiful! An innocent yet profound message! I too have this belief that the much created notion of beauty should be redefined.
Keep writing
Amreen
Children can teach us a lot, especially about redefining our notions. His questions sometimes stir me. Innocent yet profound! Thanks Amreen.
True that! 🙂
Nicely written! I don’t read fairy tales to my 4 years old girl because they have too many stereotypes and most heroines are so not what I would want her to aspire to be.
I can relate to your thought. It’s a great responsibility for us to choose what influences their thought process. I admire many of the modern day western stories for children than such old European folk tales.
Thanks for your time here, Priya. Shishu world is a nice site. Thanks for all that interesting receipes for children. Please do visit here often.
Yes, Prince maggi Tessa!
Thank God for such princes! May their tribe increase 🙂
May your son be blessed. Morning shows the day.
🙂 Thanks so much Anita!
Little babies are so pure at heart… they do not discriminate beauty based on color or looks… nice to read..
So very true. Sadly, the society around them instills the infection somewhere sometime as they grow up. Thanks for your time here, Sneh.
A small baby has a better understanding of beauty and ugly it seems!!! Nice !!
Yes, one of the many things they astonish us with!
That is so sweet!! After knowing what “Maggi”, “Huggy”, “Bootifu” etc. mean, your baby wishes for “Prince maggi Tessa”. Shows how carefully and beautifully you are raising your baby. 🙂 This post shows a hope that the generation we are raising would happily create a world without such unnecessary bias. Keep up the awesome work!
Please give your little boy a peck on the cheek from my side….for the awesome Prince he is gonna be…..
Thanks so much Divya! I hope too that the coming generations wouldn’t carry what we didn’t want to carry from our forefathers.
He gives one back to you 🙂 Thanks again. Please keep visiting pages from serendipity often.