Alice was a menace!
She was not that bored and drowsy girl as Lewis Carroll proclaimed her to be, but was an errant grade-schooler with mischief in her moves and a method in her madness. On the contrary, I was a nice girl, sweet and simple with vivid dreams in my colossal eyes. That day we fought, though we were the best of friends.
As you all might know, Alice traversed the wonderland alone in mere a mundane night’s dream and created a mess out of that dreamland. But that is not the real story. Lewis Carroll must have forgotten to tell you that I, too, was a part of her wonderland commotion.
We both were 7 then. Alice was double the size of Mr. Rabbit, but I sat pretty on the lapel of his checkered coat. His pocket clock was shrieking …TIK…TOK … TIK…TOK. Such a loud it sound was, as to my eardrums were almost ruptured.
The little rabbit hole was insufficient for Alice, but fit for me. Did I tell you that I was Alice’s partner in crime? My best friend Alice invited me in her dreams to travel across the wonderland for a BLIND DATE. I, Thumblina, as little and stout as your thumb, perfectly fitted into the bill, the rabbit hole.
We prepared #TheBlindList of our dreams, or should I say chimera, as those were not plain dreams. What we wished for that blind date was beyond our wishes. It was a ‘Dream within dream’ date with the world unseen, unimagined. While Alice drank a magic potion to shrink herself to my size to enter into the door, I slipped inside effortlessly. Ah! The perks of being an elf! 😀
Alice had a propensity for trying everything edible. So, she ate the ‘EAT ME’ cake and turned gigantic. She cried and I became scared of being blown away when she breathed out. Her tears caused the flood and I was about to drown. I crafted my very own paper boat out of #theblindlist . I rowed the boat towards a new world unknown…
The flux of Alice’s tears submerged into Caribbean Sea. My paper boat was lost amidst the waves as I didn’t know how to navigate. A pirates’ boat rescued me and my blind list paper boat was dragged to Tahiti islands. (Don’t know how Caribbean divulged into Pacific and I landed on to French Polynesia) Though I was amused with its picturesque beauty, the island fascinated me more for my hidden desire for a Black Tahiti Pearl, I wished to own since I met Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt. I was one of her minions, who used to sing paeans of her beauty.
Enamored by my music, Cleopatra gifted me a pearl from her pair of earrings. Though too precious, it was useless for her as she had diluted the other pearl of the pair in a goblet of wine and toasted it with Mark Antony. It was my prized possession but I needed a similar pearl to make a pair of ear-studs.
My dream was about to come true. . Flaunting lucent pearls in my pretty and petite earlobes seemed possible. The reason was fair enough for being there on Tahiti islands as pirates’ captive. And viola! I found a treasure trove of black pearls. I yelled in delight and ran towards a bijoux box to pick a match for my ‘Cleopatra Pearl’. While trying to turn the box, I forgot my size. I was a thumb size dainty girl and even the smallest of pearl was more than half my size. I somehow turned the box and wow…
… I was surrounded by hundreds of precious Tahiti pearls. Suddenly, a big pearl rolled towards me. Scared of being crushed by it, I ran away and it followed me till I reached back to the seashore. But, to my utter dismay, I couldn’t find my paper boat. Tahiti Island used to be deserted during those times. It was neither a holiday spot, nor a honeymoon destination like today, but was a hide out of sea pirates then.
“’O, The Mystique Moon! Please throw some light on my lost boat! — I raised my tiny hands up in prayer. Suddenly a moonbeam fell upon me. I held it tight and climbed up. It was a tireless climbing, as I was gliding up smoothly as if rapt on high.
I was on #TheBlindDate with Moon. On its rugged surface, there was table, set with exotic wines, fresh olives and caviare served on maple leaves. Behind the tryst, there were tiny glittering stars to bedazzle that rendezvous of two unequals, the feeble Thumblina and the megalithic full Moon.
I was about to sip a little champagne from the flute, but suddenly there echoed a familiar voice.
“Have you gone mad? Small kids are not allowed wines and caviar!” —Alice was shouting from behind my back.
“Why did you leave me alone in the Rabbit hole? Why the hell did you came on a date alone?”
“No Alice! I was simply dragged here. This blind date is coincidental, not planned.” —I stammered. She laughed and said, “Blind dates are never planned you imbecile.”
The Moon was perplexed. He had never met with such little girls with old heads on young shoulders. He gifted us many moonbeam shrubs. We filled them in the flares of our pinafore dresses and started to return sledging through his moonbeams. I held my beam from both my hands and spilled all the beans! Oops! Beams…moonbeam flowers I mean. And the earth bloomed with those night flowers.
We landed where I began from, the Tahiti islands. And #TheBlindList boat was waiting for us. It was a full Moon night, so the pirates were off duty, unable to camouflage their ebony boats with loads of black sails tied over their mast. The Moon was on his full glory challenging them to show their charcoal smeared faces in the glistening waves of the ocean. They chose to hide amidst the Polynesian woods and our boat was glowing with a silvery aura bequeathed by the orb. He kept his promise.
Alice rowed the boat. We were of same size as she drank the “DRINK ME’ magic potion in search of me. Finally, we reached back to the door of the wonderland where Mr. Rabbit was waiting for us in the Tea Party thrown to welcome us. The hall was quite warm, or better say too hot to handle. We started to sweat and were unable to sip the piping hot cuppa of tea.
Alice picked the Hand Fan to come back to her normal size. I tried snatching the hand fan from her…struggling…struggling we were!
“Leave the fan Alice, else I would never accompany you on a blind date.” —I was muttering while snatching the fan from her hand, all glowing, sweaty.
“Aww…Didi, look at our Momzy! She is still a li’ll baby, travelling to the wonderland in her dreams. Wake up Mommy, it’s 10.30 AM and good ladies don’t sleep till so late.” —She was giggling.
Alice, Oops Annie (Anindhya), my 19 years old, was shaking me up. It was a power cut in my house and my AC. was off, reason being my sweating during sleep. My girls call me ‘Momzy’ when they find me crazy, ie. Mommy + Crazy! Whenever I dream like a little girl, of birds, flowers, rainbows and fairytales, I turn crazy even at this age.
It was indeed a dream within dream…
…and my Alice IS a menace…she, too is a dreamer like me. She snuffs little stars in her pinch and holds rainbows in her fist. She has a long Bucket List, oops! Now a Blind List to travel the world and the seven seas to #SayYesToTheWorld.
So, Symphonites! Watch this video, shun your Bucket List and opt for an all new concept #TheBlindList. It’s time to be Openminded for an Enriching experience. The world is awaiting you with open arms for new avenues to be explored. Seek some Travel inspiration from Lufthansa and take a step ahead for Self Exploration.
Pic Courtesy : Here
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Nice story of Alice and Thumblina.