Princess Sundrella and the Disney effect

So the summer holidays are here. We are not headed to either naani's house and we have time to spill. After a couple of days in this spilling I realised that Netra should now be introduced to the princesses. Who else is good at bringing those countless princesses to life than Mr Disney. So I downloaded all the princess movies that have been made under the Disney banner. Starting with Cinderella to the current rebel and if I may say, my fav, Brave's Princess Merida.

There were some after effects that I knew of and expected to occur after so much royalty being doled out to my 5 year old. But there were some more, which nothing could have prepared me for. Her Highness had been insisting on being called Princess for some time now but after seeing Cinderella, she responds only when addressed as Princess Cinderella. When I told her that Cinderella was not even a princess to begin with, I was told "Ban gayi na wo, jaise main ban gayi" (She turned in to one, like I did). She likes being called Princess Sundrella- I told her Cinder means something partially burnt-  so she re-christened herself and may be in the process Cinderella as well.

So now our Princess Sundrella wants birds to help her chores that have been assigned to her. If she can have her way, she might even summon a deer or a tortoise. She can not understand that birds do not fetch her clothes or help her tie her hair, after all they do help everyone else from Cinderella to Aurora. Only Merida, she says did not get help from birds in getting dressed but then she has a white fluffy horse and a bow and arrows. So now the father has been instructed to get a white fluffy horse, which I dread might just be walked into our house one of these days.

One of the personal blows that I suffered due to all this exposure to Disney princesses, was the talk about mothers and step-mothers. My daughter extracted that to be a princess a mandatory pre-requisite was either a dead mother or presence of a witch in one's life. Snow White and Cinderella had dead mother's, Jasmine too; Aurora had to leave home because of the curse cast by a witch, Merida's life turns haywire because of a witch's spell. I tried to point out that these were created situations to test the character strength of these girls but I think I did not strike a chord with her 5 year old brain that was in awe of the palace, the dresses and the high heels that a princess got to wear.

I overheard her asking a friend, do you want to be a princess. The friend replied in affirmative. Then Netra sighed and said, "Phir to tumhari Mummy ko marna padega"(Then your mother will have to die). I could not supress my smile at the sigh.

Another momentous impact of the fairy tales is the fairy herself. A problem was posed that if she was a princess in the making, a mother who-should-soon-be-dead was there al right, but who is this fairy who makes everything alright, turning pumpkins into lovely coaches and mice in to handsome horses. Knowing that my sister has been the precursor of this entire phenomenon gifting her a precious bag with the pictures of these princesses and buying her magic wands and dressy, well, dresses, I suggested that 'Maasis' are the fairy godmothers to whom the dying mothers leave the daunting task of setting things right for their lovely daughters. The point was received well.

I thought that we had almost had everything under control till we caught Tangled on TV. Now the current upheaval in our lives is growing her hair long enough for it to fall down the window of our first floor flat and touch the ground beneath. And there is still Ariel and Belle's world to be explored.