The royal wedding seems to have been the buzzword for most of April. Me, I wasn’t bothered. Because while I am happy for Kate… oops… HRH Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and HRH William, Duke of Cambridge, I am not over-excited. I did not watch the event.
I did wonder for a second how it would have been had Princess Diana been alive, but that was that. Kate, a simple girl from a common family met her Prince (charming or not, you decide) and dated him. She then broke up for a bit and they rekindled their romance. They then got engaged last year. Sounds like a modern day fairytale doesn’t it? Sure!
So apparently girls from across the globe watched teary eyed as Kate walked down the aisle. Why? Because every girl dreams of a wedding like that, I was told. Ummm, not me. Forget wedding, I never dreamt of a prince charming. And I know a ton of girls who don’t either.
‘Why? Don’t you believe in fairy tales?’ I was asked.
Of course I do, but it’s a little different. I grew up reading fairy tales, yes, but they were stories and nothing else to me. I never believed them. But when I read Personal History by Katherine Graham, I found myself drawn into her tale. Not much experience, thrown into the picture by the tragic death of her husband, she ends up heading a prestigious paper and then takes it a notch higher by bajaoing the President of United States. Now THAT is a fairy tale to believe in!
Or take Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s story. A poor boy, from a scheduled caste struggles hard to get an education and ends up writing the constitution of his country! Or even Oprah Winfrey who is born in utter poverty, has everything going against her, but manages to find a window of opportunity and goes out there and becomes a record breaking TV show host and sets up her own empire, runs charities and is one of the most powerful women in world media today.
So my point here is that while we watch Kate and Will and admire their fairytale, I find it very difficult to believe its reality. To me Oprah, Ambedkar, Katherine Graham, Mrs Gandhi (Sr of course!) or even Angeline Jolie (not because of Brad Pitt but because of the work she has done) are far bigger fairy tales.
Because some people spend a lifetime looking for a fairy tale & some people write fairy tales with their lives as they go. Which one do you want to be? Which one am I going to be?
I still believe in my fairy tale. In my fairy tale, I am beautiful, I own pretty dresses and loads of shoes. I drive a Beemer and have a couple of bestselling novels to my name. Oh yes, and I also have a fabulous job with a media company. I also own a massive kitchen with a massive oven and fancy kitchen tools. Anyway what’s the point of a fairytale if you’re not the princess in it? Prince ka kya? Me, my work and my choices make my fairytale and not the prince. And the prince is there to stand by me while I conquer the world. He is there to offer me a shoulder to rest my head on after a tiring day at work. He is there. But my fairytale doesn’t heavily rely on his charm.
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