Twist in the (fairy)tale

How might fairy tales read if written in today's times? When Fairyland Lost Its Magic is an attempt at that-a retelling of eponymous fables with climate change factored in on every page.

Targetted at young readers, the book can be quite relatable to adults as well. It is humourous, subtle and grim at the same time. The stories by Bijal Vachharajani are accompanied with black-and-white sketches by Rajiv Eipe. Sample them in these three fairy tales:

RAPUNZEL’S HAIR WASHING DAY

ONCE UPON a time, a man broke into a garden to steal a sprig of rapunzel for his wife. While he was busy clipping the leaves, he was caught by a sorceress who, of course, owned the garden. She, of course, retaliated by stealing this couple’s child and locking her up in a tower so high that it rivalled most industrialists’ fancy buildings. The girl grew up to be Rapunzel with hair so long that it rivalled the number of zeroes in said industrialists’ bank accounts.

But Rapunzel was having a tough time maintaining her hair, especially since the Great Water Crisis had hit Fairyland. Now, the princess could only wash her hair once a week, on Thursday between 6 a.m. and 6.25 a.m. when free-flowing water came in the tap. One such Thursday, she washed her hair and, at 6.27 a.m., opened the window of her tall tower so that she could let her hair down to dry and for a handy prince to use as a ladder. Rapunzel retched; she coughed, her eyes watered. The air outside was SO yuck! She hastily shut the window and glowered at the grey smog whirling outside her tower. Meanwhile, the prince kept waiting and waiting, but there was nary a sight of hair or hare.

NO WHITE AND HER SEVEN FRIENDS