When Princess Gandalia was only five months old she suffered from a terrible fever. The king and queen feared for the death of their only daughter. The fever was very strong and would not go away, after two weeks the doctors were finally able to stop it however because of the length of time her body was exposed to high temperatures it caused her to go blind.
Gandalia never let her loss of sight affect her life. When she was young she played like all other children and quickly adapted living without the ability to see. If you did not know her personally you would never know she was blind. Gandalia was homeschooled as her parents feared for her safety so she never had many outside friends except for her family and the palace workers. Her favorite hobby was to read romance novels, she would often daydream about one day finding her soulmate, falling in love and living happily ever after like all the characters in her novels. She would often pester her cousins to tell her stories about their dating life. Her biggest dream was to find her soulmate and live a happy love story.
Today, Gandalia was finally turning 20! She had dreamed of this day to come because according to royal laws this was the age in which she would start meeting suitors to be her future husband. She couldn't wait to finally be able to live her own love story. After her grand 20th birthday, the King and Queen began to look for potential suitors for their daughter. Gandalia was very beautiful therefore many men were eager to have a date with her, what they did not know..... was that she was blind. Gandalia spent all morning getting ready for her first meeting, she dressed in her best dress and eagerly went inside the restaurant. The man in front of her was very handsome, the date was going great and she felt like they had made a connection, however, when she took off her sunglasses and confessed she was blind the man changed completely and left. Just like that, this scene would repeat itself again and again. Finally, Gandalia had enough she did not want to meet any more suitors and had given up on love. Word had also gone out that the princess was blind which made other men not want to meet her. All except one.
Prince Dhrit had fallen for Princess Gandalia since they were young. He had accompanied his father to the palace and when he wandered through the palace he saw her playing in the colorful garden, he had been captured by her smile. Every time his father visited the palace he would also go and he never dared to speak to her instead he would admire her from afar. However, he finally found even courage inside of him and went up to the palace and personally asked the King and Queen to take him as a potential candidate to be Gandalia's husband.
Gandalia had been hesitant to meet her new suitors, she could not take another heartbreak but she was finally convinced by her parents and the palace workers. The date had been set up in the palace garden, the staff had decorated it with hundreds of fairy lights and outdoor candles. The various flowers and fruit trees filled the area with a beautiful aroma. Dhrit was already at the table waiting for Gandalia. He was awed by her beauty as soon as he saw her. Their date began with the awkward first introduction but soon conversations just began to flow, They talked and laughed for hours neither wanting it to end. Suddenly, Gandalia fell silent and began to fidget, she was nervous because the time she dreaded the most had come-----she needed to tell him about her condition. Slowly and softly she began to speak " Before this goes any further there is something you need to know...I'm not like other girls, I have lost one of my senses since a young age......I'm blind". Dhrit sat silent as soon as he was about to speak Gandalia interrupted him "I understand if you never want to see me again" she said as she stood up and began to walk away. However, Dhrit stopped her "I came here knowing that you could not see, I've had a crush on you for many years and I wish to keep meeting you". Gandalia's heart was touched by Dhrit's words, she had found the prince charming she always dreamed about.
On their wedding day, Dhirt had decided to live as Gandalia for the rest of his life. " All this time we have been together, you have shown me your world. You have taught me to see the world with much more than my eyes. My eyes have seen enough they need to see no more, all I need is you in my life the rest does not matter" he said as he began to cover his eyes with a violet blindfold. Princess Gandalia and Prince Dhirt lived a happy life, together the discovered the worders of the world and with their four senses, they could see much more than any other person.
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| Violet Ribbon |
Biography; Based on The Mahabharata: Karmic Revolution by Epified TV (India) YouTube video series about Mahabharata. I focused on the blind bride video
Authors Note:This story was based on the love story of Gandhari and Dhritarashtra. In the original Dhritarashtra is the one who is is blind and Gandhari chose to wear a blindfold for the rest of her life in order to prove to him that she was serious about him. I made the female character the one who is blind and the male character is the one who chooses to wear a blindfold.
Hi Monica!
ReplyDeleteGreat job on this story. You did a great job of retelling the story with different characters. I really enjoyed how vivid the story was based on which words you chose. I never realized this when I read the source material, but the beginning of the story reminds me a lot of the beginning of the Disney movie: Tangled.
As I’m reading your story, I noted how you minimize the dialogue, but you do it in an advantageous way. You keep the reader intrigued by homing in on narrative that I found nice. You streamlined the story without bogging us down with words or overzealous details, while still bringing us directly into your story. Great job and thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Monica! I think gender-bends are always a fun story idea and this one turned out great! The one critique I have is that you allude to the princess doing things that would normally either require adaptation or just be straight up impossible for a truly blind person to do. Perhaps she had the palace staff read the romance novels to her? And rather than her first suitor being handsome he has a kind voice and a good smell? There are actually tons of levels of blindness that you could play with as well! I'm a fan of YouTuber Molly Burke, who is mostly blind, but can still detect extreme lights and shadows (for example: While shopping she can see sparkles and sequins, but not colors). Just an avenue that could be explored should you choose to edit this story.
ReplyDeleteHI Monica!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a cute love story. I felt like their love would've been emphasized in a stronger way if Dhrit had been like "I know you're blind, but I still love you". I definitely have seen that in movies. I think you can add a little bit of dialogue just to make it pop, but the way you told it definitely eliminated the need for dialogue.
Can't wait to read more!
Hey Monica! I really enjoyed this story. I like how you took the original story and retold it with different characters. I am a big user of dialogue and really like how you used it in this story. You included just enough that the reader is able to see what the characters are thinking without using too much. Great job with this story and keep up the good work.
ReplyDelete