Neetu Chhabra
Neetu Chhabra, hailing from Balochistan, is pursuing bachelors in education from Sukkur IBA University. She started writing from her college days. Her preferred languages of writing are English and Urdu. She has been participating in various Urdu Mushaira and won several prizes in poetry contest. Her first article was published in “Qandeel”. She has also contributed to many anthologies, magazines, and some poetics website. Writing poetry is her passion, she mostly writes on theme of spirituality, mystics and Sufism. She describes herself in two words “an unknown seeker”.
The old witch and the Princey
There was an 11-year-old beautiful girl. Her name was Princey. She had curly golden hair and large googly eyes which attracted everyone. She was the only child of her parents. She was creative, talented and active. One day, her school decided to go out and visit somewhere the children would enjoy. They decided to visit the largest garden. Hearing that Princey and her friends became very happy and excited. They were dancing and jumping. She prepared her small bag and put sandwiches, juice, and water for the trip. The school bus was standing in front of the school in the early morning. The parents saw their kids off and the bus headed towards the beautiful garden. Teachers engaged students through activities. After 2 hours they reached their destination. Princey looked at the garden and said, “Wow! What a beautiful garden it is. She and her friends were running and playing with each other. Teachers warned them not to go far and outside the garden. The garden was very large. There were different colorful flowers and butterflies which were flying above the flowers. Princey loved pink flowers. She plucked a few pink flowers and made a crown. Then she wore the pink crown on the head. Her teachers admired her and became happy to see her artistry.
A few minutes later they moved forward, but suddenly Princey heard a muffled voice; she ignored and stepped out. At that moment she again heard a horrible sound which said, “Stop”. Princey was puzzled and looked around the sky, and asked her friends: “Have you heard a strange voice?” Her friends laughed at her and said “No”.
After a little while she heard a furious tone: “I say stop”.
Princey’s legs were trembling. She stopped and looked here and there. In a moment, her friends and teachers left her. She was very perplexed and confused. A strong wind was blowing.
Suddenly, an old witch came from the garden with the help of a spiral stick. Her eyes were horrendous, and she got frown nose and long black hair.
The old witch voraciously said, “Oh! This is you who plucked flowers from my garden”.
Princey softly said: Yes, but…
The old witch touched her face and said, “Now I will pluck your eyes.”
Princey’s tears fell down and softly said to the witch, “I am the only child of my parents, please leave me.”
The old witch laughed a lot and said, ” OK, I will ask you one question. If you give the right answer then I will set you free.”
Princey said with a smile, “Okay, okay”.
The old witch asked, “How many petals are there in this tree”?
Princey thought deeply and said sharply, “It is as much as your hairs”.
The old woman wondered because neither she could counted her hair nor the petals in the tree.
The old witch freed her. Then Princey ran away and found her friends and teachers.
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