The Little Mermaid

K~ :: "Mumma, read me a story. I am not ready to sleep yet."

Me :: "Betu, Mumma is very tired. She has to wake up very early tomorrow."

("Huhh!" , "Uff!" - series of sighing and hissing followed by even worse, unending tossing and turning on the bed by K~)

Finally, K~ won. I switched on the reading lights again and asked her to choose a story she would like me to read aloud. Dart !! ........ she went to her storybook drawer and got a bedtime book.

It was "The Little Mermaid" ......... a story which had tears rolling down my eyes each time I read it with my heart and soul. An eternal story of true love and sacrifice. A quick recap of the story for the disconnected-from-childhood ones:

This love story is about a fifteen-year old mermaid princess - "Ariel" who falls in love with a human prince - "Eric", after rescuing him from clutches of a sea strom into the safe shores leaving him unconscious and unaware about it. Her undying love for him forces her to buy a magic potion made by Ursula, the sea-witch, which would transform her into a human princess. Alas! She paid a very heavy price for it through losing her voice to the sea-witch who also forewarned about her death if "Eric" married any princess other than her.

The next morning, the kind prince "Eric" carried the human princess transformed "Ariel" to his royal palace. "Ariel" was shocked to witness the wedding preparations of the prince to another princess. She was too late. She could not communicate her love for him or the sea-witch's spell on her and cried aloud on the sea-shore feeling lonely without her family, to whom she could never return. Suddenly, her sisters appeared from the sea with a dagger given by Ursula, the sea-witch. "Pierce this dagger into the prince' heart and you would get your voice and mermaid body back. Come back, "Ariel"and live happily with us!", said one of them.

"Ariel" could not kill the prince, even if that meant dying herself. She threw the dagger back into the sea and went back to see "Eric", still happy and unaware of the love "Ariel" preserved for him. She gave him one last kiss and plunged into the ocean, rose higher and higher into the sky to be a fairy. There was a heavenly voice which said " You are one of us now. Come with us. with your good deeds you have earned an immortal soul."

"The End!" I said to K~, who was still into the book as if she never wanted to come out of it. She looked beautiful in the soft reading light cosying up to me in the same blanket.

"But, Mumma.", she mumbled, "Did "Ariel" die, you mean?"

The rest of the conversation was as follows:

Mumma - " Yes! K~, the mermaid princess died. She died so that the prince could live happily."

K~ - "Not a good story. The prince was bad because he did not marry her."

Mumma - "But K~, how could she have possibly told the prince about her love. She lost her voice to Ursula, the witch and the prince was unconscious when "Ariel" had saved her."

K~ - " But, he should have known. Bad Prince."

Mumma - "K~, the prince was not bad. Ursula, the witch was bad. Why did she have to take "Ariel's" voice in return of the magic potion. Had she not done it, "Ariel" could have easily told the prince about her love for him. Don't I keep telling you, my precious K~, that I love you so much?"

K~ - "Mumma, even if you stop telling me, I will always know how much you love me."

I was silenced for ever. K~ had won, yet again.

"Night-night, K~.", I replied, so touched by her words, almost choking with tears. She cuddled up to me and went off to sleep peacefully. I got up a few minutes later and wrote the following lines.........

How could you miss the love in her eyes?

Still watching you from above the skies.

Why could you not hear her heart?

Which had the power to tear the sea apart.

She, all but fifteen, lived for you, and died for you.

Wake up, Prince! Feel her love, so pure and true.