I met a fairy

02:22:00 PM {"id":342,"user_id":1,"title":"I met a fairy","slug":"i-met-fairy","excerpt":"Perhaps all stories do not start with \u201conce upon a time----- But fairytales do and I am writing a fairy tale. I met this fairy in the slums of Beliaghata. She was as poor as they come with rags for her clothes and plenty of dirt for her make-up.","content":"<p><img src=\"\/storage\/app\/media\/cropped-images\/KEYA%20GUPTA-131-263-354-392-1567586938.jpg\" width=\"100\" \/><\/p>\r\n<p><strong>Dr. Keya Gupta. A medical doctor by profession and a dabbler in story telling.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>Perhaps all stories do not start with \u201conce upon a time----- But fairytales do and I am writing a fairy tale. I met this fairy in the slums of Beliaghata. She was as poor as they come with rags for her clothes and plenty of dirt for her make-up. I could recognize her for the happy twinkle she had in her eyes. Only fairies have that. She came to my clinic with a stomach ache. I was so surprised\u2014\u201caren\u2019t you supposed to cure them with your spell I asked her. She looked at me conspiratorially and told me not to be stupid. She was supposed to be incognito and I am the only one priviledged with the knowledge so I should keep my big mouth shut. I was affronted \u2013there in my own clinic she was giving me such a dressing down and----but what the heck ! She was a fairy after all and they are so charming that they can get away with blue murder. I gave her the medicine she wanted and then because fairies do not need any follow up I just told her to drop by my clinic whenever she wanted.<\/p>\r\n<p>She started coming once in a while and then regularly because she loved the smell of betadine and she could watch for hours when I dressed a wound. She had a name to herself. She was called Haseena---straight from the Arabian Nights. To keep up the pretence of living among humans she worked in the trash section of the plastic factory. I knew a little about the factory and the working condition of the factory was appalling, I would chide her about working there but she would laugh away. Her inimitable laughter always did light a candle in darkness. She never talked much and I knew very little about her. But isn\u2019t that what fairies are like So elusive. She herself was so slight that at times I mistook her for a butterfly. Once on my way home I saw her writing gibberish on the dirt and the letters were shimmering away. Interested I asked her whom she was writing to. She said her husband. She had a wistful note in her voice which made me certain that her husband was a human. So that explained a whole lot----her pretence and her incognito. Now my curiosity was wholly aroused. Did she have to pay a nasty witch something to gain entry into the wicked, wicked world of the humans ? Did she still have her wand and her wings? Oh yes ---she assured me.<\/p>\r\n<p>Why don\u2019t I see them?<\/p>\r\n<p>Come to my house one day and I will show you.<\/p>\r\n<p>Time flew and I became very busy with other inconspicuous things in my life. She would come in and go out as she pleased but I hardly paid her any attention till one day she came with a needle prick in her finger.<\/p>\r\n<p>How did this happen\u2014I asked her.<\/p>\r\n<p>She told me that there were several needles in the trash she handled and one pricked her finger very badly.<\/p>\r\n<p>This time I was furious. Look fairy \u2013I mean Haseena there is a limit to stupidity. I must speak to your husband at once.<\/p>\r\n<p>But he has left me about four months back.<\/p>\r\n<p>Left her---left a fairy behind. Am I hearing clearly?<\/p>\r\n<p>There came a sudden lump in my throat and I could not speak.<\/p>\r\n<p>More I tried to forget her the more she started coming back to me. I was haunted by my fairy .If her husband left her why doesn\u2019t she fly away to fairyland. What was she trying to prove in this sordid, filthy, dingy slum.<\/p>\r\n<p>So one day while returning home I thought I will pay her a visit. Besides she had promised to show me her wand and her wings.<\/p>\r\n<p>I found her sitting in front of her ramshackle hut. She was eating some boiled rice with an onion and a green chilly. I started getting uncertain about her fairyland status. She was eating human food. Very poor fare but human food none the less. She smiled her million watts smile at me and all my doubts were dispelled. I asked her about her wings and her wand. She quietly took me inside and I saw them neatly folded and kept under a makeshift furniture she used as her bed. It was then that I noticed two malnourished-wriggly-dirty angel faced kids sleeping on the bed.<\/p>\r\n<p>I looked at her and reading my mind as fairies do she told me she had human kids by her husband. That is why she earns human money and cannot fly away to fairyland. And oh she also needs to take human food because the younger one suckles her breast.<\/p>\r\n<p>For a moment she looked more beautiful than a fairy to me.<\/p>","content_html":"<p><img src=\"\/storage\/app\/media\/cropped-images\/KEYA%20GUPTA-131-263-354-392-1567586938.jpg\" width=\"100\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>Dr. Keya Gupta. A medical doctor by profession and a dabbler in story telling.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Perhaps all stories do not start with \u201conce upon a time----- But fairytales do and I am writing a fairy tale. I met this fairy in the slums of Beliaghata. She was as poor as they come with rags for her clothes and plenty of dirt for her make-up. I could recognize her for the happy twinkle she had in her eyes. Only fairies have that. She came to my clinic with a stomach ache. I was so surprised\u2014\u201caren\u2019t you supposed to cure them with your spell I asked her. She looked at me conspiratorially and told me not to be stupid. She was supposed to be incognito and I am the only one priviledged with the knowledge so I should keep my big mouth shut. I was affronted \u2013there in my own clinic she was giving me such a dressing down and----but what the heck ! She was a fairy after all and they are so charming that they can get away with blue murder. I gave her the medicine she wanted and then because fairies do not need any follow up I just told her to drop by my clinic whenever she wanted.<\/p>\n<p>She started coming once in a while and then regularly because she loved the smell of betadine and she could watch for hours when I dressed a wound. She had a name to herself. She was called Haseena---straight from the Arabian Nights. To keep up the pretence of living among humans she worked in the trash section of the plastic factory. I knew a little about the factory and the working condition of the factory was appalling, I would chide her about working there but she would laugh away. Her inimitable laughter always did light a candle in darkness. She never talked much and I knew very little about her. But isn\u2019t that what fairies are like So elusive. She herself was so slight that at times I mistook her for a butterfly. Once on my way home I saw her writing gibberish on the dirt and the letters were shimmering away. Interested I asked her whom she was writing to. She said her husband. She had a wistful note in her voice which made me certain that her husband was a human. So that explained a whole lot----her pretence and her incognito. Now my curiosity was wholly aroused. Did she have to pay a nasty witch something to gain entry into the wicked, wicked world of the humans ? Did she still have her wand and her wings? Oh yes ---she assured me.<\/p>\n<p>Why don\u2019t I see them?<\/p>\n<p>Come to my house one day and I will show you.<\/p>\n<p>Time flew and I became very busy with other inconspicuous things in my life. She would come in and go out as she pleased but I hardly paid her any attention till one day she came with a needle prick in her finger.<\/p>\n<p>How did this happen\u2014I asked her.<\/p>\n<p>She told me that there were several needles in the trash she handled and one pricked her finger very badly.<\/p>\n<p>This time I was furious. Look fairy \u2013I mean Haseena there is a limit to stupidity. I must speak to your husband at once.<\/p>\n<p>But he has left me about four months back.<\/p>\n<p>Left her---left a fairy behind. Am I hearing clearly?<\/p>\n<p>There came a sudden lump in my throat and I could not speak.<\/p>\n<p>More I tried to forget her the more she started coming back to me. I was haunted by my fairy .If her husband left her why doesn\u2019t she fly away to fairyland. What was she trying to prove in this sordid, filthy, dingy slum.<\/p>\n<p>So one day while returning home I thought I will pay her a visit. Besides she had promised to show me her wand and her wings.<\/p>\n<p>I found her sitting in front of her ramshackle hut. She was eating some boiled rice with an onion and a green chilly. I started getting uncertain about her fairyland status. She was eating human food. Very poor fare but human food none the less. She smiled her million watts smile at me and all my doubts were dispelled. I asked her about her wings and her wand. She quietly took me inside and I saw them neatly folded and kept under a makeshift furniture she used as her bed. It was then that I noticed two malnourished-wriggly-dirty angel faced kids sleeping on the bed.<\/p>\n<p>I looked at her and reading my mind as fairies do she told me she had human kids by her husband. That is why she earns human money and cannot fly away to fairyland. And oh she also needs to take human food because the younger one suckles her breast.<\/p>\n<p>For a moment she looked more beautiful than a fairy to me.<\/p>","published_at":"2019-09-04 14:22:00","published":1,"created_at":"2019-09-04 14:17:23","updated_at":"2019-09-04 14:42:55","metadata":null,"ginopane_blogtaxonomy_series_id":null,"seo_title":null,"seo_description":null,"seo_keywords":null,"canonical_url":null,"redirect_url":null,"robot_index":null,"robot_follow":null,"summary":"Perhaps all stories do not start with \u201conce upon a time----- But fairytales do and I am writing a fairy tale. I met this fairy in the slums of Beliaghata. She was as poor as they come with rags for her clothes and plenty of dirt for her make-up.","has_summary":true,"categories":[{"id":28,"name":"\u09b8\u09be\u09b9\u09bf\u09a4\u09cd\u09af","slug":"litrature","code":null,"description":"","parent_id":25,"nest_left":30,"nest_right":31,"nest_depth":1,"created_at":"2019-02-07 12:35:48","updated_at":"2019-03-30 13:00:16","url":"https:\/\/www.banglaworldwide.com\/category\/litrature","pivot":{"post_id":342,"category_id":28}}],"featured_images":[{"id":608,"disk_name":"5d6f8015b72df666966055.webp","file_name":"Slum_Dwelling.webp","file_size":188540,"content_type":"image\/webp","title":null,"description":null,"field":"featured_images","sort_order":608,"created_at":"2019-09-04 14:42:53","updated_at":"2019-09-04 14:42:55","path":"https:\/\/www.banglaworldwide.com\/storage\/app\/uploads\/public\/5d6\/f80\/15b\/5d6f8015b72df666966055.webp","extension":"webp"}]} November 21st pm 30 10:29pm