Children's Day Special: Classic fairytales with a twist

Rapunzel, The Karate Kid
Aneira Gupta, 5 St Gregorios High School, Chembur
A long time ago, there lived a kind king and queen, who really wanted to have a child of their own. Finally, after a few years, the queen got pregnant and they were very happy. But the queen fell terribly sick and stopped eating anything. The king was told that the queen would get well only if she ate a magical flower. He had no idea that the flower belonged to a witch, Mother Gothel. The queen ate the golden flower, became alright and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. The king and the queen named their daughter Rapunzel.However, the king and the queen didn't know that the magical powers of the flower had been passed on to Rapunzel, who had gorgeous golden hair. Her golden hair had the power to keep the witch, Mother Gothel, young forever. However. if her hair was cut, the magic would be lost.Rapunzel's parents had no idea about these magical powers. So one night when Rapunzel was sleeping in her room, the witch decided to kidnap her. The witch wanted to take her away, so that she could remain young forever.The witch entered Rapunzel's room and she moved closer to her bed. But Rapunzel got up! Rapunzel was a clever little girl, she understood that the witch had come to take her. When the witch moved closer to Rapunzel, she gave the witch a karate kick "Haaaiiiiyyaaaa!" Her parents had taught her karate, so she was very confident of her skills. The witch was badly hurt and fell to the floor. Rapunzel's parents had taught her to immediately inform them, if she saw a dangerous person and needed help. So she ran to her parents room and shouted "Help, help!" The king and queen woke up hearing Rapunzel's voice and hugged her. When she told them about the witch, her parents were very happy that she fought the witch. Then Rapunzel went back to her room, smiling, and started reading a book.

Cinderella's Real Stepmother
Pracheta Ghosalkar, 11, Daffodils High Public School, Bhandup
Once upon a time, in the city of London, there lived a five-year-old girl named Cinderella. She was the daughter of a rich young gentleman and a woman belonging to a very rich family.Cinderella was pretty and innocent. She loved going to school. She was very intelligent and a topper at her school.She was an only child, who loved her parents very much and couldn't live without them. Her parents were very affectionate and would appreciate her and kiss her when she did good work.When her mother died, because of an unknown disease, her father was left alone to take care of Cinderella. He married a widow who had two daughters of her own. When Cinderella heard the word stepmother, she thought that her new mother would be wicked. But her stepmother turned out to be a very kind and caring lady, who cared for Cinderella as she did for her own daughters. Cinderella grew to love her stepmother very much.Cinderella's two stepsisters were also kind and even helpful. Cinderella was much happier than before; because as an only child she didn't have any one to share her feelings with. Now she had two younger sisters—Gloria and Gracie. The three played, jumped, danced, sang and shared things with each other.Ten years later, Prince Charles needed a partner to help him rule. The prince's father had died during one of the wars between the kingdoms, when he was still little boy. His mother became the queen, but even she died two years later, leaving Prince Charles to rule the kingdom. The prince was told to marry a girl named Cinderella—who was beautiful and intelligent. They marrried and rode off to the palace in a beautiful chariot to live and rule together.

The Brave Little Mermaid
Shivani Shetty, 10 Ajmera Global School, Borivali
Once upon a time, a beautiful young mermaid Ariel lived in the Mediterranean Sea. Her father, King Triton, ruled the sea. Ariel had a beautiful voice and loved to sing. Humans fascinated her; she would collect the objects they left behind.When the wicked witch, Ursula, who dreamed of ruling the sea, heard about Ariel's fascination for all things human from her pet eels, she met Ariel,with a proposal, "I will make you a human if you give me your voice. I will return it once you get back home; but if you do not return before sunset, you will be human forever".Ariel agreed to give up her voice, which Ursula captured in her magic bag. As Ariel's tail turned into legs and she began to explore the shore, Ursula went to the palace and told the king that she held Ariel captive. As proof, she showed him the bag with Ariel's voice. She offered to release Ariel in exchange for his trident. The king, handed over his trident, and thereby his kingdom, to Ursula, who promptly put the king and his family behind bars.In the meantime, Ariel had been walking along the shore, enjoying the feel of sand beneath her feet. She entered the city of Syria. Fire, smoke, blood, dead bodies, grieving loved ones... Syria was at war. Unable to bear the sound of guns and people wailing she ran back to the sea just as the sun was setting. She dived in just in time to get her tail back.She saw the sea changing colour and fearing that the war on land had reached her home too, she swam to her father's palace as quickly as she could. She was shocked to see Ursula on her father's throne and quickly understood what the witch had done.Ariel was determined to save her kingdom. Unaware that Ariel had returned, Ursula roamed around the palace freely. Ariel caught Ursula off-guard and a fierce battle ensued. Arial fought valiantly, defeated Ursula and put her behind bars. She got her voice back and released her father.After a day spent as a human being, she no longer wanted to be part of that world. She was proud of the peace in her home, the sea.

Snow White and The Apple Salad
Anubhuti Anwekar, 13 Ryan International School, Malad
Once upon a time, there lived a pretty little girl called Snow White. She was a princess, but her mother had recently passed away, and her cruel stepmother Queen Alice made her do all the housework.Well, she did it cheerfully; but as she became lovelier and lovelier with each passing day, Queen Alice became extremely jealous and decided to make Snow White work even harder. But the girl rebelled and ran away by night. Soon she became very tired of walking and started to think that she had done a foolish thing by leaving the palace. She kept walking and glimpsed a light shining among the trees. She ran towards the light and found an empty house. Snow White walked in, quite unperturbed, rested and refreshed herself.At night when the owners of the house, seven dwarfs, returned from work, they saw a pretty little girl fast asleep, looking so lovely that they did not wake her up. She soon woke up and explained her tale calmly. She was allowed to stay on the condition that she keep house for them; she agreed at once.The next day they went off to work, but not before instructing Snow White to be careful; for, as they said, "The queen is a witch; she surely knows where you are by now and will come to kill you".No sooner did the queen get to know where Snow White was hiding, did she prepare some rosy apples, poisoned on one side. She then turned herself into an old woman, and went to the dwarfs' cottage, calling out, in a sweet voice, "Apples, apples for sale!" Snow White poked her head out of the window and said, "Old woman, kindly sell me some.""Yes dear," said the old woman with a wicked smile. Snow White suspected trickery; so she took the apples, cut them up into small pieces, made a salad and looking utterly innocent said, "Would you like some?"; with that she shoved the salad into the woman's mouth, stilling her wicked heart forever.