This is my daughter’s story for the #kbcAPinchOfMagic contest!
The story of a well-intended experiment that turned hilarious
I was playing with my friends on the balcony when suddenly my Appa came out running with a broom in his hand. I wondered what was wrong and asked him what happened. He said a big lizard has entered the house.
I and my friends rushed into the house to get a closer look at the lizard. As we stepped into the house, we were frightened to see an almost 6 inches long lizard with dark black spots staring right at us. We all stepped back and went up to the terrace as Appa decided to wait till it gets out of the house.
The minute we reached the terrace, an idea struck me. I wondered what if I could make a magic herbal ball that can shoo away the lizard. I could then make my Appa proud of me and he too can attend office meetings without worrying about the lizard’s surprise visits.
I took the help of my friends to make a herbal lizard be-gone ball.
We entered our herbal science lab, our terrace garden. We took a mug and plucked some leaves of tulsi, ajwain and pudina. We added some water and each of us took a turn to crush the leaves with a stone. Then, one of my friends said, “Arey, this is smelling fresh and nice, like the chutney my mother makes. The lizard will have a feast and not go away”.
“Oh yes”, I said. Then, in the corner of the garden, I saw the Panchagavya bottle that my Amma had kept and had asked me not to touch it. I know it smells yuck and that would be the best thing to shoo away the lizard.
We then put on our masks and quickly poured a little bit of Panchagavya into the herbal mix. We then crushed it again and it smelled horrible. And I wondered how to make it as a ball. Then, my other friend said, “let’s add some Aloe vera gel as it’s sticky”. We then mixed it all together and it turned somewhat like the unicorn poop slime!
I thought why not make it attractive. So, we took some magenta coloured Vadahmalli flowers, crushed them to get the colour and added it to the mix. We added some more leaves and crushed them to make them thick. Then, we made it into balls and then we put them in the freezer. After some time, we took out one herbal lizard be-gone ball. It was frozen and hard. We quickly tied it with a thread and hung it from the curtain rod in the entrance.
I was feeling excited to show our invention to my parents. I called Appa and Amma to the entrance to show them. As Appa reached the entrance, the lizard be-gone ball melted and S-P-L-A-S-H dropped on my father’s head!!! Seeing this happen, my friends ran away. And before Appa could catch me and scold I went running inside, to the kitchen, to hide behind my Amma.
But, she was standing there staring at me angrily with the refrigerator door open and a horrible smell coming out of the freezer. I was trapped and I went running into the bathroom and locked the door. As I left a sigh and turned around, I felt someone staring at me…and oh noooooo…it’s the lizaaaarrrrrrrrrrdddd……!!!!!
SAVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
P.S. This story is narrated and illustrated by my 9-year-old daughter, Mahathi and typed by me while being corrected upon many times by the author (SIGH!). Also, the author insists that I make a mention of the following points:
1. That she prefers Panchgavya and Vadahmalli to start with a capital letter (don’t ask me why) and Vadahmalli be spelt just the same.
2. The title should be the same (especially, the hyphen between be & gone, that matters!) and no other suggestions (Shoopalli Chooranam/ ShooLiz Ball) shall be taken into consideration.
3. Bringing in unicorn reference (poop slime) was a must.
4. Absolutely no compromise with the multiple exclamatory marks and the exaggerated spellings pleeeaaaassseeeee!!!!!!!
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Characters and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. And it would be a lie if I put such a disclaimer as most of it is a reference from real life. It’s up to the reader to decide and settle with their choices of calling parts/whole of the story fictional/non-fictional.
Happy Reading
