mashmilo....

MY SHORT STORY
Here unfolds the intriguing tale of a cute princess but not an ordinary one. The cute little princess is a bunny princess from the kingdom of rabbits. She is none other than the cute and chubby little bunny Milano, born to King Harie and Queen Vanamali, of the famed Rabbits and Hares Kingdom.

Long, long ago, deep in the lush and verdant jungles of Idukki in Kerala, untouched and unnoticed by humans, there existed a tiny kingdom. Not a Kingdom of mere mortals, and not just an animal kingdom where the Lion reigns supreme… This is the kingdom of hares, bunnies and rabbits. King Harie and Queen Vanamali reigned supreme over this wonderful little kingdom and they named this the Moyal Land (bunny land).

King Harie and Queen Vanamali were blessed with a cute furry white bunny Princess, the Bunny Milano. She was bestowed with all the comforts in life but sadly enough, she did not relish having to live in a burrow palace, all on her own.

Bunny Milano loved the sun, the butterflies, and the gentle breeze that ruffled her fur. She loved to gaze at the gentle moon that smiled down upon her by night, as she peeped out from her burrow. Princess Milano loved to swing about and play in the sun but felt sad about having to return to her palace in the burrows by night. Milano did not like her palace in the burrows which was deep underground: it was dingy, dark and of course there were no pretty butterflies flying around merrily, no chirpy birds and no flowers to nod their heads at Bunny Princess.

Princess Bunny Milano got more and more depressed as days flew by. This worried King Harie and Queen Vanamali too. What was happening to their cute little princess? She refused to even touch the luscious carrots and crispy green succulent letters served to her over dinner.

Naturally Queen Vanamali was worried. She cuddled Milano Bunny and queried,
‘Why My little Princess baby, why don’t you eat those lovely carrots? “

“Mom, I need to be out there in the wide world, exploring and frisking about in the sun by day light and I want to sleep under trees, enjoying the cool night air and gaze up at the moon. I don’t want to live in burrows”- Milano looked mournfully up at Queen Vanamali.

Queen Vanamali bristled in anger. “No bunny Milano, we rabbits need to live in burrows to protect ourselves from evil animals on the prowl like the foxes, the lions that would invade our Moyal (bunny) land and pounce on us to make a good meal of us. Here, in our kingdom, at Bunny land, in your burrow palace, you have all the security, and luxury!” – exclaimed Queen Vanamali.

“I do not want to live in a dark burrow palace”- wailed Bunny Milano in abject misery. “ I want to play in the sun, with flowers, butterflies and explore more of the world out there”- and Milano burst into tears.

Queen Vanamali put her paws around Bunny Princess to comfort her and gently rocked her to sleep.

As days passed, Bunny Milano grew more and more restless. One fine day, while playing and frisking around a swift flowing river in the deep dark woods, Bunny Princess Milano lost her footing and fell into the swift river. The other bunnies hopped around crying out for help , while Bunny Milano struggled to regain footing but sadly enough, her wet fur got caught in a piece of drifting log and the river currents carried her down stream , with her clinging to the log , far away from Bunny land……

The adventures of the Bunny Princess Milano begin thus, with her unforeseen foray into the wide world. Away from Bunny Land, and in the land of the humans, Milano meets an erudite scholarly Rat- Masha the elie, and they become friends for ever. This series is called Mash Milo, relating to young minds the continual day to day adventures of Milano the Bunny Princess and Masha the elie, the scholarly Rat, and how eventually, Masha returns Bunny Milano safely back to Bunny land….






CHAPTER ONE.

It’s late at night and darkness shrouds the streets of Aspiran Garden in a thick black cloak. A sliver of moon light plays hide and seek through the tapestry of branches arching over the streets. A lone figure trudged down the street with a ruck sack on its back, muttering to herself and squinting through her glasses to catch a glimpse of a light from any one of the houses lining the street.

This is none other than Masha the Elie, the erudite librarian and scholar. She’s dressed formally in a suit and a scarf tied round her neck. Unfortunately for her, she had been the Chief Librarian of the Brit Rats Council Library: her voracious “hunger” for the written word had made her literally “devour “the books, gnawing through them and the Council Secretary had thrown her out of the Brit Rat Council Library. The Secretary himself was sad to see such an erudite scholarly librarian like Masha the Elie being thrown out of her job, but then, he had the folks of Ratsville to answer to. It wouldn’t do for books to be found half eaten or devoured by the librarian herself!

That’s how we find Masha the elie trudging down the streets of Aspiran Garden, looking for a place to rest her pretty head for the night. The Council Secretary had been kind enough to let her stay at the Library over the night but proud as Masha is, she had stomped out in a huff, stuffing all her belongings into a ruck sack. She had no clue as to where she could go, and what she could do.

“Ahem, no Masha, be positive. You have it in you to make things work”- she spoke out loud into the night. “There is a reason for everything happening and I will find a way”- Masha muttered under her breath, trying to perk herself up.

As Masha turned a corner, she saw a sliver of light emanating from a ramshackle building. It stood lonely lost and dark, in between two beautiful houses flanking it on either side. Masha stood staring up at the building, debating with herself as to what to do next.

“Oh! I guess I will ask these folks if I could stay here for the night”.- she spoke to herself. The gates to the run down ramshackle house were open and Masha sneaked in. The lights were on in the top floor of the building Mash expertly shinnied up a tree to take a peek in at the window.

Cuddled up in a ball on the old eiderdown and bed of the old run down ramshackle building was a cute bunny with snow white fur. Masha gazed down at the sweet little bunny, and on a stool near the bed side lamp, lay the most beautiful tiara ever. Recognition dawned in her and Masha realized that she was looking down at none other than the missing bunny Princess Milano from Bunny land.

“Princess Milano Bunny? Here? I remember reading about her missing from Bunny land a few days ago, and King Harie and Queen Vanamali suspect that their precious Princess Milano Bunny got drowned when she fell in to the deep river…. Whole of Bunny Land is mourning over the loss of their sweet Little Princess and now she is here in this ramshackle building?!!

Masha the Elie felt a surge of excitement sweep through her. She scooted in through the open window and looked around. The house was a mess. The sitting room was cluttered; the kitchen had pots and pans yet to be washed. Plates were stacked with food crumbs sticking to them.

Masha the Elie wrinkled up her nose in disgust, and scratched the top of her head. “Not a fit place for Bunny Princess to be living in. I wonder how she got here. Got to inform Bunny Land and their King and Queen that their bunny Princess is safe and fine”- Masha thought aloud.

She opened her rucksack, took out a skirt and top, quickly changed into them and set out to clear and clean up the house. It took Masha the elie the entire night to set things straight. She made herself a pot of tea and sipping it, dozed off while sitting near Milano Princess’s bed and never realized that the skies were already turning pale, heralding in a brand new day.

“I am hungy…..’ Milano the Princess sat up straight in bed and looked bale fully at Masha. Masha the Elie woke up with a jolt and stared back at the cute Bunny Princess. She couldn’t resist hugging the cute little Bunny Milano.

Milano pushed Masha the elie away and again stared at her balefully. “I am hungy….”

Masha the elie crept into the kitchen took out milk, bread, sugar, vanilla essence and eggs. In a jiffy, Masha had turned out a pile of tasty French toast and strawberry milkshake, set them out neatly on a tray and brought it up to Milano.

“Princess, here’s your breakfast’- Masha curtsied prettily as she set the tray in front of Princess Milano. Milano’s eyes widened in surprise and delight and within minutes had devoured the whole tray of its contents. Masha looked on indulgently and held out a napkin for bunny Milano to wipe her whiskers daintily.

“My mama never used to feed me eggs or toast but I love them’ smiled Milano

“Oh! Gosh!’ – Masha had forgotten that rabbits feed on carrots and juicy lettuces.

’Oh1 My Princess, I will scoot out and get you carrots and lettuces “.

“No! I hate them! I want to have tasty crisp toasts, pastas, jellies and ice cream’- cried Milano.

Milano and Masha stared at each other for a while. After a while, Milano the Princess scrambled out of bed and hugged Masha.

“Who are you? How come you are so tiny?”

“I am Masha the Elie and I am a librarian. How come you are here in the land of rats, in Ratsville my dear Princess? Far away n Bunny Land, His Majesty and the Queen are sad and morning over the loss of their pretty little bunny Princess. The whole of Bunny land is in mourning I read about it in the papers. How did you reach here?”

“Well. I was frisking around in the forest with my buddies and we went too near the river. I lost my footing and fell into it. My fur got snagged on a piece of log drifting by and I was carried away down stream by the swift currents, away from Bunny land. I was scared and lost consciousness. When I woke up, I found myself washed ashore. I got up and while looking around, a tiny girl pounced on me and wanted to take me home. Her mama wouldn’t allow me inside and so she brought me here to this run down dusty house. That little girl Tina lives just down the lane. This happens to be her granny’s home. Her granny died a while ago and they let the house turn dusty, run down and dirty. Tina used to sneak up some food from left overs of her meals each day.”

Masha felt sad on hearing this. She crept up to Bunny and hugged her –“Well, Bunny Princess, I will look after you from now on”.

“Are you taking me back to Bunny land?” Milano’s eyes opened wide in surprise. “I want to go round the whole world, want to play for hours in the parks, lick ice creams “- Milano looked at Masha anxiously.

“Well, if that’s what you want, Bunny Princess, but first let’s send a pigeon across to Bunny land with news of you being safe here. It wouldn’t be nice to let the King and Queen suffer in misery of your loss, Bunny. I will inform them that I , Masha the elie the erudite scholar, is taking good care of you and within some days, will return you to Bunny land.”- Masha smiled kindly at Milano the Princess.

“Don’t worry, we will go around and visit all the places you want to see and finally, after all our adventures, we will go back to Bunny land”

Princess Milano hugged Masha the elie tightly and thus was forged the great kinship between the duo. The Mash- Milo duo’s adventures follow… you fellas follow…..