The new morning brought ‘rolling chuckles’ for the
citizens of Hilaria. The crowd gathered on the streets for a view of the fleshy
leg-piece covered with garnish of tamarind leaves. For the first time in the
history, the queen’s any son was on the road without regalia, covering his
censorious parts with tamarind leaves. And the man was Prince Barbie, the
eldest son who was girlish by name but the cruelest of all. The queen had a
dream to name her first baby on her mother, however a prince born in the kingdom.
Barbie was a notorious ruler who punished his workers severely and also ate
from their lunchbox many times. But this time, citizens were in majority. They
teased him, adding fuel to the fire. A lot of naughty children started chasing
him, pinching his back and running away calling him the “hairy tamarind”.
Neither the prince knew why this happened to him nor could he do anything, just
following blindly a command by the matriarch.
A
night before, the senapati Dismal Das had suggested a number of remedies to
Queen Persnickety to overcome the ‘Aster-risk’. He suggested the queen to keep
all the matter confidential as if the citizens get to know about it, they would
stop worshiping god for such a misbehave with their mother-like queen with a
benign heart. “Every time, I will show you two paths of which you will have to
choose one. Once you choose, you can't back out and you will have to implement
it by the next morning. Shall we start for the very first step?” the senapati
asked and the queen nodded.
“Choose
the one: Either you will have to accommodate poors in the castle and provide
them a shelter inside, instead of leaving them to shiver in cold in their
polyester camps or throw your eldest and the most lovable prince out of the
castle for a day.” Senapati said. Queen fell in great quandary because she
couldn't see Barbie suffering even for a moment as he was her right hand in
every situation, be it a war or to choose a brand new sari (dress) from the
market for her. Beside emotional attachment, he also helped her to punish the
poor workers and culprit citizens. So, Queen couldn't leave her in that state.
“Fine.
I order you to throw Barbie out of the castle for one day. I can’t afford the
dirt to enter my castle at any cost.” an unexpected reply came from the queen,
which showed how much poison she had inside for the poors.
“But
there is a problem in sending him out.” Senapati said. “The prince will have to
give up his regalia and tie the tamarind leaves over his body, as it is not of
his own earnings. Moreover, he will have to work like other workers and have a
pie of his earnings only.”
The
queen cried over senapati for not telling the conditions before asking him to
choose and she couldn't even back out then.
Senapati
said with a quivering and shrill voice “This is also a condition of the
challenge not to tell the conditions before you choose. Now, Walk the talk.”
The
queen did what she said and next morning Prince Barbie was on the streets. He
earned a few pennies after a laborious and tiring work but could hardly arrange
for a piece of cloth. Being familiar to the nature of the prince, the workers
still came out to help him and also shared their lunch with him. He also played
cards with them and the queen had no objection over it because he was a poor
for one day.
By
the end of the day, before the queen could taste the relief, senapati fell with
another conundrum.
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