Sirop de Vanille

In the Kingdom of Notsofaraway, lived a not so fair and not so blue eyed Princess. She was tanned from not bothering about sunscreen when she went for walks and had cut her hair short for it was her only curse. She didn’t care much for skirts or dresses; her mother, the Queen, had a tough time shopping for her. She also did not like frills or laces too much, and to top it off, she preferred shades of blue even though the colour pink made her look angelic and very princess-like.

Her best feature was probably her sharp, intelligent eyes, very dark and nicely eye-lashed. Maybe, it was her smile. Her smile was happy and her laughter, unabashed and a bringer of joy to all who were lucky enough to hear it. The Princess wasn’t used to being called by her real name. It was too complicated and tough to pronounce. I cannot pronounce it either, so we’ll stick to calling her ‘Princess’, just the way she liked it.

Notsofaraway didn’t have many knights in shining armours, as they liked travelling to the kingdom Farfaraway to save damsels in distress. Saving them was easier than wooing the non-frill-donning lasses of Notsofaraway. Slaying dragons, fighting unhappy witches or slipping on glass slippers was what they were trained for. They weren’t trained to differentiate between the various meads that Notsofaraway was famous for, or discuss the merits as well as the demerits of post-Ice-Queen-age writing, or appreciate the fine workings of the Magik Lantern. And our Princess loved her mead. She was also a supporter of the arts, especially for the Magik lantern. Magik was her hobby. She loved practicing magik, and the rumours of her affair with Viszard Shehzad were a result of her interest in the subject, not the eighty year old’s ability to look like he was twenty five. The stillyeng spell was not one of her favourites, despite the ability to create an absolutely awesome illusion of freedom from ageing. Such false rumours followed Princesses, as did the scoopazzis! Although, her love for chocklette had indeed resulted in various nights of fabulousity in the company of Chef Unibrow. She had of course convinced him to get rid of the unibrow after their first cooking session together, but the name still stuck. All in all, Princess supported her people, in whichever way she deemed fit.

The people continued to adore Princess, like they had adored the Royals for the few hundred decades that had passed in Notsofaraway.

***

On another extraordinary day, on her way to the University of AllthingsFabulousandAwesome (UniFab), she picked up her friend Nayanka, an absolute stunner, whose passion was clothes, shoes and bags (yes, magikals do love the yuzuals). Nayanka managed to look utterly gorgeous after her daily two hour morning ritual. Point in case, the girl crushed fresh blackberries and cranberries daily to paint her lips to perfection.

“You smell divine!”, said the Princess as Nayanka climbed into the only black royal chariot. Nayanka smiled at the Princess in return.

“What is different? Did you finally succumb to the charms of the perfumer?”, the Princess persisted.

“No way in wherever-we-go-when-we-die! I just replaced the jasmine and rose mix with sweet almond essence.” , she made Princess take a whiff of her delicious smelling wrist, “The perfumer wanted me to wear something called ‘Lover’s embrace’, and it had musk in it! Disgusting!”, the Princess wrinkled her nose in agreement.

The conversation continued as it usually does when two friends meet after the passing of an entire fortnight. They talked of a variety of things. Nayanka was helping Princess with the costumes for the UniFab theater production, and had gone ahead and accessorised with a vengeance. They exchanged boy notes as well, the perfumer and Shehzad Jr. were being very demanding and had already put forth the question feared by all girls of Notsofaraway, ‘Where do you think this is going?’

***

A sprawling building, which continued to grow with new additions – rooms, halls, towers, auditoriums, terraces, ponds, greenhouses and occasionally even lawns – looked as welcoming and confusing as ever. This neverending growth spurt had resulted in a Department of UniFab Signage, which had on its payrolls, many full time and innumerable part time employees.

The bright sun shone on its favourite university and the vines of many magikal and yuzsual plants that adorned the red walls. The girls smiled at the newly added tower 13.

“What do you think this one is dedicated to?”, asked Nayanka.

“I know what it is dedicated to.”, replied Princess. Nayanka waited for an answer but her friend continued walking towards the Breakfasteria.

“Wait! Tell mee…!”, followed Nayanka.

“It’s not my place to tell, Mr. Rayta will do the honours at half past one today.”, smiled Princess.

“Oh come on!”

“Wait.”

“Please… pleeaaasseee!”

“Patience my dear Nayan. Patience.”

“Patience… rea… Oh my God! Where did she get those shoes from?!”

“What?! Oh!”

“Those are special edition Chooz! And they haven’t even released in Notsofaraway!”

“Well, then the Gosscoop was right.”

“What do you mean? She…! No…! Not Choozah!”

“Seems likely…”

And there she was, the University’s recent addition, Pam, short for Pamtram. The girl’s true love was chocklette, but she only sniffed it now, for she liked fitting into a size too-small. Needless to say, she is not liked by Princess or Nayanka. For enjoying nights of fabulousity is something they too enjoy and look forward to, as we all should, but to trade nights of fabulousity is totally unacceptable.

***

Or is it? We’ll find out soon.