NYAC | 3min Read
Published on May 7, 2026
My Fairy
My Fairy
I could smell the aroma of the sweet Kashmiri Kahwa tea. It was an Eid day. Greetings of
hollow joy flowed in the house as I tumbled through the rooms. My mouj ‘mother’ asked
me to dress up. In no time, it was the time of the Eid prayer. Ahh, I did not like to pray, like
what 10-year-old does? But I had no choice but to follow my ‘Papa’ to the mosque. People
usually say, You can’t hear colours and see sounds, but it is not true. On my way to the
mosque, I could see the silence reflected in the closed shops and the empty lanes. In the
courtyard, my neighbours greeted me, and I them, but their smiles did not speak joy.
Anyways, as it was to happen, the Imam led the prayer. In our prostration, there was a loud
bang outside. It was a stone pelting. It was quite common in those days. The people present
ran. My father and I hid in the bathroom, waiting for the situation to go back to normal. A
tear gas shell was launched into the same room; the whole room was filled with skin-
burning smoke. I remember hands pulling me. I remember coughing so hard I thought my
chest would tear open. Someone was shouting my father’s name. Someone else was crying.
The mosque floor felt cold against my cheek. Then everything went dark. I never came to
know how my father managed to get me home that day. At home, the smoke still clung to
my lungs, and my eyes refused the words I longed to read. Silence filled the rooms, and a
fairy appeared. “Kill the misery. Why are you sad?” Asked the fairy.
“ My eyes… they hurt! I can not see now,” I said.
“ Because they hurt or because you can’t see?” It asked.
“ Because I can’t read the story now. The lonely fox.. It is trapped in the cave, and then
what?”“ Then imagine the fox in your mind. What does he do there? You see him?” It asks.
“ No, I can’t!”
The fairy spreads her wings around me.
“Do you see him now?” She asks.
“ Ah, it is a fox! He is still in the cave and is terrified of the fog and the stones. Poor him!
He moves forward. Look, he sees a path, and now, he is not afraid. He learns the stones and
can see through the fog. He finally reached the pond, and Ha, there are his cubs, and they
are drinking water!”
“ He finally met his cubs! You see? That is the true beauty of your mind.” I rubbed my eyes
again. The light did not return at once, but the darkness did not frighten me anymore. I
could still see the fox in my mind, standing beside the pond, his cubs pressed against him.
The fog had not disappeared; I had simply learned to walk through it.
The fairy faded forever as my room was in lights.
