25 Dec 2011

Fairy Dust And Pots Of Gold


I never believed in fairy tales. I loved them but I never believed in them.


I never believed that Rapunzel’s hair could grow that long, that Snow White’s father never knew or suspected what was going on. I never believed that Hansel and Gretel found a whole house made of chocolate. I never once had a doubt as to whether the frog really turned into a Prince. In fact, I never did believe in Prince Charming.

I never believed that snow came down from the Heavens, that it rains when the Gods cry. I never believed that my painfully pulled out tooth would be replaced with a coin by the tooth fairy under my pillow. I never believed in the horse-shoe or the three-leaved clover and though I love the very thought of them, I always knew fairies, pixies and unicorns are make-believe. And mostly I knew Ram and Ravan never deserved all the diyas because they are the Ying and the Yang. I knew that the footprints in rice flour was not Lakshmi. I knew Ganpati never did dissolve properly and come back again the next year.

I knew the Witches of Oz couldn’t harm Dorothy, I knew that Tinker Bell was safe with Peter Pan. I never looked under my bed for goblins; if I was scared, it was always for the human psycho-killer. I always enjoyed The Hound of the Baskervilles a tad more than the regular twelve year old.

I knew God wasn’t Krishna or Jesus or Allah. I knew God was just Him, a chilled out dude who loved nagging us from deep within. A conscience, some would call it. I knew temples were calming but nothing more, the church was peaceful but that’s about it.

I worshipped Harry Potter, stayed up whole nights with the three of them and spent days wishing I’d get my Letter. But I always knew that Hogwarts was the place I’d escape to when things got tough in my reality. Galleons hold no value and Butterbeer would only slip down warmly to my stomach in my imagination. No wand would pick me, I wouldn’t have to wait to have my first sip of Firewhisky and I couldn’t give Fred and George bear hugs for bringing laughter into my board exams. Because I accepted the simple fact that Rowling has a phenomenal imagination.

Santa Claus was always fictitious; I knew it was Mum bought the presents under the Christmas tree. Even when I was three. I remember eating his cookies and thinking that it would be good if he went on a diet.

I was, am, a skeptic. I try hard not to be, try to love life and all it has to offer but deep inside skeptic is who I am. I know it’s all a façade man creates to find happiness, to escape into a place where things are not as tough as in his regular life.

But if they are all untrue, if they all are imaginings, if they are nothing more than extensions of wispy dreams, why are fairy lights irresistible, why is the Christmas tree magnificent, why are the carols so soothing, why do I put up with cold feet and nose just to put up my stockings? Why do I continue to delude myself?


Why is it all so magical even when I know magic doesn’t exist?


Merry Christmas, everyone :)

54 comments:

  1. magic is present in something that we conveniently choose to ignore or underestimate.
    "US"
    i have lived my teenage on harry potter fascination.
    i have practiced the spells secretly with a dandiya stick personifying the wand.
    i have imagined scenarios of hagrid barging in through the window and officially taking me to hogwarts much to the chagrin of my neighbourhood kids
    i have written pages on my love for harry..

    i guess after a point all of it just remained that..
    a fascination..

    but there is something that it taught me..
    the power to believe..
    and that was the magic i found..:)

    Merry Christmas PeeVee
    Keep Believing..it will take you a long way..:)

    cheers !!

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  2. Life would be miserable if we had nothing to believe in!

    Merry Christmas :)

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  3. Sometimes it's good to believe in magic even when you don't. I'm a cynic/skeptic like you and it doesn't translate into Christmas for me though. However, I do like to believe that there are wizards and witches out there (I blame Rowling!) and we are mere muggles! Have a great Christmas PeeVee.

    P.S. Temples are no longer peaceful...they are too commercialised!

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  4. Because magic DOES exist.

    Unicorns are so real. You don't have to believe, to want to believe. Christmas is a magic time because it just makes us happy. Even the perpetually grumpy like myself find something to enjoy about Christmas. About stories, about a lot of things. I think everyone, no matter how cynical they are, still have that small part of their imagination left that can dream and live as anything and anyone.

    PS I think they have made actual butterbeer now. Not sure on the Firewhiskey.

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  5. May you have the most wonderful X-mas ever! God bless.. :)

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  6. OOOOH the perfect ending!
    Skeptic we all are but inside we are believer too...the hope that magic exists.!

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  7. I loved this post!
    Yea, I am a skeptic too. And I love fairy tales too.
    And I always thought there was a human psycho-killer under my bed :P

    But isn't that what makes fairy-tales better? Reading and knowing you can't live it?

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  8. it is definitely all a facade, a facade created by the humans to bring that extra joy an d happiness and hope to our lives. it is in my opinion to fire our imaginations and think, think beyond all possibilities and escape the nagging realities for a while :)

    Merry Christmas :)

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  9. Merry Christmas, PeeVee! :) Your post is very lovely and it reminds me of this Douglas Adams quote that goes something like, "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"

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  10. This is my undisputed favourite.
    And trust me when I say that.
    I've been there, done that, believed that way too, and this post just screams a huge connection <3
    Peevs, You're a smaaaaaarty xD

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  11. Amazing piece of writing! Just loveeed the end! <3
    Merry Christmas! :)

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  12. Magic, probably happens all around us, but we don't know it, or over-analyse something way too much, or are just to skeptical about it.


    Magic, may not the same kind which is written in the books, magic is when a loved one, loves you back, even though there are seven billion other people in this world, magic is when, you your black lies get overseen, magic is when someone totally random makes you smile, magic is....

    Its something, that is just protecting you all this while :)

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  13. lovely post;
    it somehow reminds me of 'shawshank redemtion'

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  14. Because we are humans. And it is our tendency to look for hope. Find comfort in that world which we know doesn't exist but still the thought that it 'might' keeps us going. It's human tendency to hope beyond the limit. To try to make everything right. To comfort ourselves with every belief. And magic does exist. Isn't being born the most magical thing in the world? Isn't the ability to give birth to a human, a child from a mere 2 cells the most wonderful thing in this world ever?
    That magic does exist. In small things. Only if we take the effort of seeking it out. :)

    -N

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  15. We are all skeptics deep within but what really keeps us going is the belief that the magic exists! Imagining a life without these make believes is life without childhood.Its difficult and dry!

    I am not a believer but i love to hope that maybe just maybe i end up meeting Dumbledore someday.I know he is dead in the book as well but he is Dumbledore.He can do anything.Maybe meeting me is also on his agenda!

    Lovely post Peevee!!

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  16. Because there is something which is beyond our grip of reality. Magic is not how the world has presented to us. But does that mean there is none? It doesn't and so we hope, we smile, hoping for it to sneak out and unravel its mystery before us.

    Lovely post.

    Merry Christmas!! :D

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  17. I confess that I believe it all..I can't help but believe in fairy tales and everything associated.. :) I live in my own world and Magick happens 24*7 .. And Magick also taught me to accept and see the beauty in things that I can't relate to.. You maybe skeptical but you are beautiful in your own way and you know that.. :) Merry Christmas!

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  18. you said it so well. you actually took the time to draw out each of the fairy tales and myths out of your mind and placed the right words between it! yes, we deny the existence of magic, but that magic, keeps us smiling always :) somehow.. merry christmas peevee! Loves!

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  19. Happy Christmas, you.
    I may not like chocolate, but this I can relate to.
    Christmas is magic. Just something about it. Makes the cynic in me take a back seat.

    Love.

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  20. It all exists in your head, if you know it is, it is, if you don't believe, it does not matter.

    Merry Christmas :)


    Cheers,
    Blasphemous Aesthete

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  21. It's been a while since I visited your chocolate factory. And now, this post has only made me scratch my head.

    On a serious note, I can quite relate to it. Although I understand that the questions posed here are quite rhetorical, there might still be some hope in finding the answers. Maybe that's what Christmas - or any other festival for that matter - is all about: hope.

    Merry Christmas! :)

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  22. 'Believe' is a magical word in itself. Everything begins with an imagination.

    Merry Christmas :)

    P.S. Even I was waiting for the letter from Hogwarts delivered by owl ;)

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  23. :) Can't describe in words how much I loved this post! It's been weeks since I came on blogger, and reading your post made me see the doofus I had been. :D

    Thank you for this post! :)

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  24. Exactly PeeVee! The reason why I love animation movies is that because I know they don't exist for real, but just that I wish it would be :)

    //I knew God wasn’t Krishna or Jesus or Allah. I knew God was just Him, a chilled out dude who loved nagging us from deep within. A conscience, some would call it. I knew temples were calming but nothing more, the church was peaceful but that’s about it.//

    With this, you got me totally. The exact words I tell everyone who go on and on trying to force their beliefs on me.

    I know fairy tales don't exist, just that I wish that it would be better if they did :)

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  25. Deep within us we all want to believe that our lives aren't just so mundane, that magic does happen and will happen to us :D

    Merry Christmas to you and the family PV.

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  26. wow ! what an adorable post ( and the blog as well ) :-)

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  27. @ meoww, :) that's a nice thought, that we have magic in us...
    Thank you:)

    @ Hazel, it really would!:)

    @ PB, :D you're not a cynic if you believe hose to ignore the rest of the world and go to a temple to soothe your inner self, they become peaceful:)

    @ Mark, /you don't have to believe, to want to believe/ sucha perfect line, I should have included that in the post:)
    They have?! o_O

    @ phatichar, thank you:) You too..

    @ Red, thanks:)

    @ Happy Go Lucky, thank you:)
    For me it was frustration though, knowing that I can't live it.

    @ Purvi, so true, thank you:)
    You have a good one too..

    @ Tangled up in blue, thank you...
    And that is a BEAUTIFUL quote. If I'd known about it I'd have definitely used it here:)

    @ Cяystal, :)the fairy lightswala picture remind me of you, I don't know why..
    Thank you:D

    @ Rach, thanks...you too:)

    @ Tangerine, exactly.
    That is a HUGE compliment considering how iconic the movie is:)

    @ Anonymous, you just summed up my philosophy of life and made it better:)

    @ Upasana, thank you. Rowling has set all of our minds and hearts on fire, I see:)

    @ Sam, thank you, you too:)

    @ Ananya, believing is a good thing:) Really.. You always have hope, like Sam said, that it'll unfurl in front of you someday..
    Thank you so much...

    @ Nia, it comes naturally when there seems to be magic all around, Christmas is wonderful that way.
    Thank you:)

    @ Isha, may I try my converting abilities? I might get you hooked to some dark chocolate:) Thank you...

    @ BA, LOOK WHO'S BACK!!:):)

    @ Karthik, why head scratching?
    Hope IS a pretty word:)

    @ Beyond Horizon, :) true, that.

    @ Loony, awww, thank YOU being so nice:)

    @ Keia, thanks girl:)

    @ Pinx, thanks, same to you:)

    @ Miss Komal, thanks:)

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  28. This is such a poignant post. And I can echo the sentiments exactly. Even though Harry Potter happened after I reached legal adulthood, I stil wanted to believe in that magic. :)I love all kinds of fairy stories and disney movies and wish that those worlds really existed :)

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  29. believing in something impossible and taking courage and hope from it...

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  30. They do indeed but there are several different recipes and most of them are non-alcoholic versions. I also just found a site with a fair few recipes from Harry Potter including chocolate frogs and pumpkin pasties. Which is where I found the alcoholic version of butterbeer.

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  31. I am quite a cynical soul. But magic is something I wanna believe exists. :) :)

    Made me visit that magical place in my head. :)

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  32. Hope and a little dreaming is what keeps us afloat; else we would have transformed into gloomy, depressed beings long long long ago.

    Loved the part about the temple and church being calming and peaceful places,completely agree with you on that count.

    Merry Christmas once again.

    Cheers :)

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  33. Magic is just in our hearts and I love this post. I realised I'm a skeptic too but there's a certain charm in those last lines.

    Beautiful Peevs.. :D

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  34. There is magic in your words.. and your way of writing is magical or is it eerie???? :D
    Merry X mas. Peace

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  35. This is the post that makes you THE WRITER that you are-that speaks of your finesse...of your expressions that go straight to the heart...

    You make me want to agree with you when you nod and disagree when you grimace...such is powerful writing!

    such is how you say, you make me feel...loved it Peevs:-)

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  36. heyi first time on your blog and honestly, after a really long time, found someone whose thoughts and words kind of rhyme with mine. Of course your words and thoughts are knitted so damn well, that it made me want to read one.
    Must thank suruchi for this link on Fb :) fabulous blog, shall be reading you often now ! peev :)

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  37. All said and done.. ironically... it was a magical and fairy tale post!!! :D Believe in the magic... nothing to lose!!! :) Wishing you a magical new year 2012... and a fairy tale of a life ahead!!! :)

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  38. @ Sunitha, thank you:)

    @ HappyVic, profound lines:)

    @ Mark, I'm going to Google them soon enough and hopefully my New Year will start on a Butterbeer note :)

    @ Srinidhi, is it something that we Arians are?:)

    @ AS, thank you:) But ain't the hope fading away in bits and pieces as well?

    @ Shreya, thanks love:)

    @ Jane, eerie? In a good way, I hope:)

    @ Suruchi, muchas gracias <3
    And you shared it on FB?! *dancing around*

    @ Sulagna, welcome here, Madame:)
    glad you could relate, thank you:)

    @ Dee, :D lol, yes it did turn out that way na..
    Thank you, wish you the same:)

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  39. Lovely post PeeVee! Well as you rightly said sometimes a man needs to sooth the nerves and banks on faith and god!One thing is for sure that good imagination brings positive energy :)Have a wonderful New Year..

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  40. Because sometimes magic finds us when we least expect it to, in our most hardened and cynical shells. Sometimes, its just nice to take a deep breath and give in.
    And sometimes, just, whether voluntarily or not, accept that we were born grown up.

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  41. Because those tales are endlessly alluring and oh so beautiful. The very thought that fairies and Gods are waching me from up above, has made me feel special, when I was a child. I would definitely love to fill my kids' life with magic (when I have them :p)for there is so much innocence and joy in 'believing' :)

    Loved your post. And the title- perfect!

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  42. I love your blog. You have the talent of a writer! It's nice to be your 300th follower. Happy new year! :)

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  43. *Ear to Ear Grin* And that's how I came up with my Blog. :D :D Magic...within us around us. Believe is what we need to have. I don't trust in Unicorns or Tooth Fairy, Yet Why can't I escape once to feel, it may be real? :D :D Oh, the way you write!!! I love it. Simply Love it! <3 Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year

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  44. Because we live our dreams with it. Reality is not very pretty always except for this post. Belated Happy Anniversary dear...Keep up the good work!

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  45. @ Rahul Bhatia, thank you:)

    @ Shreya, it truly does. Thanks.

    @ Destiny's child, so sweet of you to want the very same for your children, yes, there is innocence in believing:) Thank you:)

    @ symphonicaozge, thank you so much. Hope you have a brilliant 2012:)

    @ Laddu, YOU'RE BACK!!!:)
    exactly... it's all around us...
    thanks love....<3

    @ Saru Singhal, thank you:) You too..

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  46. *Biiiiiiiiiiiig Bear Hug* I missed youuuu!!!! <3

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  47. OH MY GOD.
    I could have written this. I have NEVER Believed in ANY fictional creature/myth accept for Harry Potter, Hogwarts, Snape and Voldemort.

    I'm still waiting for my Hogwarts letter :O

    AWESOME-EST POST EVER!


    PS:- I changed my blog's url, so please un-follow and re-follow my blog so that my shitty posts keep on popping up in your Google reader.

    http://teenagemutiny.blogspot.com/

    Thank-you.

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  48. even I don't believe in magic,,, but still these stories help us ,,somehow it helps to view life in a different view!belated Xmas wishes..n a happy new year,,!

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  49. Somehow, I was always a fairytale believer :) And now suddenly I've turned into this realistic non believer and stuff. :)

    But in the end magic can happen in our world too :P

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  50. I guess we're all waiting for our letters too :P
    Well, fairy tales are better than reality.
    This was very nice.

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  51. 'm a realist, a pessimist and a hater. but i've experienced miracles happen. sounds freaky or insane uh? trust me.. it happens. 'm not talkin about love n chicks n filmi shit here. i jus hope it happens to you too, sometime

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  52. i am in love with your writing... never commented but i a stalking your blog since two days.. ;-) :-)
    even i am skeptic.. but a believer too... i don't know but i think that's the secret of life..

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  53. simply awesome... u just gave words to what i have been all my life.. skeptic and believer at the same time..
    BTW you have a new fan.. i am in love with your writing.. and i have been stalking your blog.. ;-) :-)

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  54. Hey PeeVee, you might want to check this out:
    http://lifeetc-poonam.blogspot.com/2012/01/fairy-dust-and-pots-of-gold.html

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Go on, you can say it.