The two most precious things in the city...

A friend in high school had once narrated an amusing anecdote about her Math tuition classes. Her teacher had explained a particular concept and had asked them to learn the related formulae by heart, learn them so well that they (the students) would be able to rattle them off at the snap of a finger at any time and at any place. To emphasize this part he had, apparently, given them quite a vivid example.
"Suppose someone pushes you from the top of a thirty-storey building and in the midst of your free fall, a person pokes his head out of a fifteenth-storey window and asks you the formulae, you should be able to say them as fluently as you can sitting in my class "
Well, speaking for myself, I don’t trust myself with formulae in such a cliffhanger of such a situation. However there is something which can be my forte in such a predicament. Leaving aside jumping from tall buildings, I’m pretty sure that if I am ever woken up on a freezing winter morning and asked to recite those lines, I stand a pretty good chance.

“ ‘Bring me the two most precious things in the city’ said God to one of his angels and the angel brought him the leaden heart and the dead bird. ‘You have rightly chosen’, said God, ‘for in my Garden of Paradise this little bird shall sing for evermore and in my city of Gold the Happy Prince shall praise me’.”

Can anything be more wonderful than saying these words aloud and to feel their magic?

Some words,some songs,some stories get ingrained in the fabric of life. None so much for me as the story of the Happy Prince and these final words.
Whenever I recite these lines to myself, I feel like I am being transported to a different realm. There is such an overwhelming sense of peace, calm and bliss. Simple words woven together by a golden thread to create a beautiful tapestry, a melody that leaves its sweet refrain long after the last note has been sung. The creation of a master. A magical tale that of beauty and wonder that ends with the promise of Paradise.
The Happy Prince and the little swallow. When one loses his golden allure and the other its life, the Mayor of the city decides to discard them. Little does he know that what he considers useless and without value are God’s chosen ones. I feel a tug in my heart whenever I read the story or think about it. It makes me pause and ponder. There’s such a pristine beauty to this story, a sublime appeal that touches the depths of the heart. No effort goes in vain as long as it is selfless, that is perhaps the biggest lesson this story has taught me. Also, that it is never too late to make amends.
The Happy Prince, in his lifetime, had been oblivious to the pain and sorrows of the world around. Now placed on a pedestal in the centre of the city, he is witness to the poverty and misery of his people. Sapphire from his eyes, ruby from his lips, gold leaves from his body-he gives it all away. And he is not alone. He has a friend to help him.
With dreams of a warm summer in a faraway enchanted land, the little swallow arrives in the city. A short rest is all what it wants, taking shelter beneath the golden statue at night. A drop of water falls on it. What kind of a shelter is this if it cannot shield me from the rain, the little bird wonders. It looks up and is entranced. Tears in the eyes of the statue.There begins the swallow’s flight, to a needy home each night. Warmth and love and comfort. A light in darkness.

The story of the Happy Prince is my elixir. Its beauty is timeless, like the glow of fireflies at night, like the nightingale’s song, like the evening star. It is the spark that attempts to ignite the glow within and dispel the darkness. To be sensitive to the plight of the less fortunate, to be selfless, to traverse the path to true happiness- Oscar Wilde paints it all in an unparalleled radiance.
Fairy tale and epic– two ends of the spectrum of story-telling. To me ‘The Happy Prince’ is a fairytale epic. A fairytale because of the beautiful construct of the story, the aspect of enchantment, the allure of a magical premise, a sense of wonder it invokes. An epic for the message it conveys, the values it brings to light, the tale of the cost of sacrifice and the ultimate reward, the soul-searching it inspires in the readers.

Every little girl has her Prince Charming, I had my Happy Prince! And the romance lives on,till Paradise beckons.