The Three Citrons

Part of my Metaphors and Narratives assignment. An attempt at writing the story from the villain's point of view. Because in the end, Heroes and Villains are just, point of views!

Fairy Tales, they say everything is beautiful in a fairy tale. Perfect. I couldn’t agree more. Sure, In every fairy tale a beautiful repressed Princess is crowned as Queen so that she could live happily ever after. The Prince becomes the King and he always manages to conquer the love of his life.
And a Slave, lives just like a slave, even in a fairy tale. Just Perfect.
This is a story of a slave from the far far land, always at the service of her lady. That day she was in a very fine mood, i know so because she was humming when she came to fill water for her lady. While filling the vessel she caught her own image in water. “Don’t I look different today?“ she wondered. As soon as the thought crossed her mind, her vessel cracked. “Oh this must be the warth of Gods, as rather then being concerned about my lady’s thirst I was wondering about myself“ she cursed herself thus for being so careless.
She went back to her lady and told her the tale with remorse. Her lady being a kind soul herself took pity on her misery and gave her the best vessel that she owned. The slave hurried to the water source again as she didn’t wanted her lady to wait anymore. Again she tried to fill the vase but again she stopped to wonder her beautiful image in water and the vessel broke again. She again cursed herself and went back to her lady with her story.
The kind mistress thought of giving her another chance but this time instead of a clay vessel she gave her a rubber bag, so that if in case the slave manages to drop the bag as well, no harm will be done this time.
The slave reached to the water source and filled the bag but as she started getting up she had a glimpse of her face. At the precise moment the bag got punchured with several holes. This time slave started crying.
Suddenly a voice came out of no where. She said ‚“ O dear friend, forgive me, as i was just playing with you so far. I didn’t intend to hurt you or make you cry though.“ At this the slave looked up towads the tree. Three sat a really pretty girl. She realized that it was the face she was seeing again and again. She stooped crying immediately and got curious about the girl.
She asked “ Hey prey, tell me who you are and what are you doing here?“
At this the girl told her that she was a fairy who came out of a citron. She also told the slave about the prince who travelled all over the world and passed through various witches and orges and atlast managed to find her old lady who gave him three citron and the way to make the fairies from the citron. “Right now I am waiting for my prince to return as he has gone to bring a cavalcade so that he could take me back to his kingdom.“
On hearing this the slave got really happy for the fairy but she observed that the fairy herself wasn’t happy, so she asked her about same. The fairy replied “I just got free from the citron and I wish to see the world before I finally get tied to the Prince for life.“ At this the slave asked with curocity,“ But ain’t ya a fairy? You must be able to do anything, don’t you?“ “Yes, I am. But I am bound to fillfull the man’s whims and fancy because that is what is written in the religious book of fairy tale. I will lose my powers if i think of anything otherwise. “ The fairy replied.
“Oh, if it is written in the religious book of fairy tale then it must be right. It’s sin to question the decision of almighty anyways. But isn’t there anyway by which you can filfull your dream without defying your duty?“ The slave asked.
„“Oh I think there is something which can be done,“the fairy replied ,“If someone can only take my role for a while I go and see the world“
“I’ll be happy to help you in any which way you like my fairy. Tell me what i have to do?“ The slave reverted happily.
The fairy got excited with the slave’s reply and reverted,“You can wait for the prince here and on his return tell him that you lost your beauty in the absense of prince’s love this while but you’ll regain it again with his love for you“
“But i always thought I was beautiful, ain’t I fairy?“ the slave asked in all innocence.
“Oh sure you are, you are prettier than me but human eyes fail to see the beauty which isn’t obvious. Wikipedia fail to define the meaning of the word “beauty“ for them but don’t you worry i’ll give the world power to see your real beauty on my return.“ Saying this the fairy turned herself into a dove and started on her expedition.

Soon after the prince returned with his entourage and on not finding the fairy around inquired the slave about her. The slave repeated the story which fairy had asked her to tell. The princess got heartbroken when he came to know about the truth because the beauty which he had asked for this long was not there anymore. Even then he went back to his kingdom with the slave as his wife because he had already announced about her exsistance to everyone. The king and queen got scandalized with the choice of the prince but said nothing as prince was back after years of wait. But even they observed that even after years of search and his choice of bride the prince wasn‘t happy. He never talked to his wife or even entered her room. Though the new bride had told him the cure, the prince could never gather himself up for the same. The days goes on. Where the new bride was waiting for the fairy to return so that she can go back to her mistress, at the same time prince was wasting away his life in worthlessness.

After 2 years the fairy returned. She was in her dove form and was trying to enter the castle when the royal cook caught her and cooked her for the lunch. Though he throw the water used to boil the bird in the garden. A criton tree start growing at that place.
One day, after few months, the prince saw the tree in the garden. He saw that there was three critons on the tree and they were similar to what were given to him years back. He ran to the tree and like before cut the citrons. Like before he fail to save the fairies from the first two citrons but saved the last one. This fairy was even beautiful that the last one. The prince couldn’t believe his luck. He took the fairy in the court and asked everyone “what punished should be given to the person who tries to harm such a beauty?“ Everyone was amazed by the beauty of the fairy, they all suggested brutal punishment for the sinner.
This new fairy also reminded the salve about her own fairy and remembering her she answered,“Anyone trying to harm such an innocent soul should be burned alive“ The prince was waiting for precisely this moment. On this he start putting false accusation on his wife that she was planning to hurt the beautiful fairy. The prince just wanted to get rid of the ugly wife that he got and he knew no one will question his authority therefore he had come up with this plan in the first place. And it worked for him.

The slave never got a chance to present her case or argue. She wouldn’t have anyways because she was always taught never to argue. Therefore as per the announced punishment, she was brought near the citron tree in the garden, to be burned alive. Prince was finally happy that he’ll get to marry the most beautiful woman in the world. White and red as he always wanted. He ordered to burn the slave, at that moment few flowers from the citron tree fall on the slave. With that the promise by the first fairy got filfulled and eveyone could now see in the slave, the beauty of her deeds. But by now her cloths had already caught the fire.
There prince kept standing, rooted to his place and watched the most perfect woman of white and red coloring burning alive in front of his eyes.

Moral: is immoral!

HIMYM - M&N

Kids, as you know, “How I met your mother” is a story about how people of New York live in our times, which Ted Mosby is going to recite to his kids in 2030. Now along with being the most popular sitcom series among the Indian youth of today, it is also a narration of his life i.e. autobiography by Ted Mosby. Now there are several points which make this particular series a fascinating study on Narratives.
Now taking about the narrative, how will you tell your kids about how you met with your spouse? Here Ted Mosby of future goes back in his memory and tells them small incidents which happened to him which led to his meeting with his wife. Though he could have told the chronicles of events that happened on the very day of the meeting and could have done with the story but instead he sees the need to put the very day in a context which would validate/approve/account for the actions he took on that particular day. Though you can argue that how can he be sure that little snippets of his life that he is narrating are enough to give context to the day, or how in the first is choosing, what is important and what’s not? It’s a very valid point because narratives are endless they can’t have a specific start or ending, but whatever little that he tells at least provides an understanding.

Superhero vs. Sidekick

during our discussions in class, we also came upon the question that when we are telling a narrative about ourselves do we ever see ourselves as side-kicks or is it always us who are saving the world? To put the question in this context, we see that story revolves around each of the characters where all five of them have their fair share of playing the hero and narrator just a side kick. Examples could be the situations where the story revolves around Barney and Robin’s affair or Lilly or Marshall’s encounters with Marshall’s family. There Ted Mosby is just somebody in background. Here once again you can argue that it was so because of the medium of narration. Instead of it being filmed if it were a book or if Ted was telling the story face to face then may be the portrayal of the characters would have been different. A video might allow each character an almost fair share but a book or speech provides a perspective of who is telling the story and also how the story is being told.

The True Narrator

Then there is the concept of how truthful narrator is while telling a story he knows best as it happens to him. Here Ted Mosby wants to tell his children about his story because he wants them to understand their father better. Even though here he is trying his children to take his story forward with them, he chooses to amend a few facts here and there for them. As no parent want to tell their children that they use abusive as the part of their speech. For precisely this reason Ted changes the word in the narrative while telling the story. In a second case, Ted and his friends Marshall and Lilly used to smoke weed during their college days, but as again this will be a fact no parent would ever like to mention to their children, as they want them to stay away from them, therefore every time when a story reaches to a scene where they are smoking pot, to hide this fact, Ted and his friends instead are shown eating “a very large sandwich”. Here the most interesting part is, as the medium is of video it could have been possible that Ted can replace the word “weed” only in his speech as “sandwich”, but in this series even in the shoot they are shown eating a sandwich. Therefore, the truth about our true story depends too much on who are the listeners of the story.
This manipulation of truth could be done in two ways, one as mentioned above, by representing the act by some other “acceptable” act. Or by not describing the act at all, as if it never happened so is not the part of the story. Like in the first four seasons of the show none of characters was even shown smoking. But it was sometime very late in the season 5 that Ted confesses to his children that he and his friends were all chain smokers.

Myth of a Nation

As per the story, Robin Scherbatsky is from Canada who came to New York for her career. She is shown to be in constant battle between her loyalty to her old country and her acceptance by a new one. Though she is not in her own country but even then the constructs of her identity makes her a Canadian. She likes to get into fights, loves hockey, and hangs out at this favorite Canadian bar where she along with other Canadians in New York often sings songs of Canadian glory.
In the Season 5, episode 5 “Dual Citizenship”, Barney trains Robin to be an American because she needs to give a test for American Citizenship the next day. Though she learns all the rules to be an American by heart and gets her American citizenship, even then to celebrate it we find her back in the Canadian Bar having a heart to heart. She goes for the dual citizenship A Canadian who is an American as well. Now how will you measure what is she more of? What part of her belongs to which country even without the stamp of dual citizenship on her name?
As Scherbatsky is a true to her roots, therefore, many a time the Americans in the series are seen establishing their nation. We know America is comparatively new country whose history and myths are still in the making. Therefore, several a times we find the rest of them bend-on on making their myths to create the identity of an American. This is something which is repeated several times in the series. Like in the above mentioned episode itself Barney demonstrates the various habits of an American. Let it be the chant of USA or Shrimp Fried Rice, or how Robin’s answers for American citizenship test are not “American” even though they are correct. Along with that they are also making a new myth of a New Yorker. Like in “Subway wars” in season 6 the gang declares 5 things you would have done if you are a New Yorker.
Here we the construction of the concept of nation. Every day we are into making little myths of our own to provide ourselves a distinct identity and at the same time giving proof of our affiliation to a set of people so that we are not alone. Human has mysterious need to be different, but then he is aware of the fact that everyone is seeking for something similar in others to get associate with. So to overcome this fear of being left alone, we tend to make smaller group of people who are different from everyone else but similar within themselves. IF only we get ready to accept everyone else with their complete uniqueness we all could be ourselves and live together with fear.

The Disowned Culture

If we see narration of the show, then it is a narrative of American culture to the Indian audiences. It being a series set in city of New York, where the culture is very different from the Indian Culture. We have a very common debate going on, on whether it is the media which affects the culture/society or vice-versa. Having said that, it is very interesting to note that several actions regarding number of sexual partners for both male and females, smoking and drinking, use of curse words etc, which are otherwise unacceptable to an Indian youth as per the cultural norms, becomes almost alright when shown in the series because there acts are acceptable as per the culture of the country the series is set in. All most like being in a fantasy world where the reader/viewer can actually free one’s self from the clutches of norms and laws of reality and don the cape of possibility and get lured by the mirage of freedom in fantasy.
And Narratives gives one freedom to get in and out of text, add/subtract from it any element and make an attempt to make sense out of the vastness of the intricacies of the world.