Rinku and the Magic Powder-3

by Ankita Bansal

The story so far (see Rinku and the Magic Powder-1 and Rinku and the Magic Powder-2): Rinku comes across some thugs threatening a monk on a deserted road one evening, trying to get ‘the magic powder’ from him. The monk breaks free, hands a paper bag to Rinku and escapes. The thugs close in on Rinku, and suddenly he finds himself in his bed, being woken by his mother. He dismisses the event as a dream, but then finds the Monk’s paper bag under his pillow. He hides it in his cupboard and remembers it only while pavking for a camping trip to the desert in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. He takes the bag along, meaning to show it to his friend Ratan. That night, in his desert tent, Rinku is woken by someone calling his name. He comes out and sees an old man running away. As he gollows the old man, he comes across a half-buried box in the sand, which has a letter bearing his name …

“ Dear Rinku,

You are a descendant of Maharaja Lakshminarayan, the king of Sultanpur. One day, an enemy king attacked the royal palace. The enemy king was none other than Lakshminarayan’s own brother, King Vibhutinarayan. Their father, Suryanarayan, was a great magician. After many years’ hard work he made a magic powder which could heal any wound.

He made it to help the people who got injured in the wars, but King Vibhutinarayan was a selfish and greedy man. He wanted to sell that powder to another magician who was his father’s enemy.

When Suryanarayan came to know about this, he made a magic box in which he stored a bag containing magic powder. Only one who was pure of heart would be able to open that box. Suryanarayan hid the box in a secret dungeon of a palace, deep in the desert.

A hundred years later, a monk opened that box and took away that powder, meaning to heal people with it. But some dishonest people heard him talking to his disciple and wanted to take away the powder from him and misuse it. The monk realized that the magic powder would always attract bad people and would not be used for the good of others. So, he decided  to keep the powder back in the box. After that, you know how that powder came to you.

You, Rinku, are both pure of heart and a descendant of the great magician, Suryanarayan. So, it is your destiny to open that box and return the bag of magic powder to the box in the dungeon. That entrance to the dungeon looks like the mouth of a lion.

Your well-wisher.”

I was in shock! But I realized it was my duty to put that bag safely back in the box. So, I hurried to my camp, brought the bag and began to search for the palace with the dungeon that looked like the mouth of a lion.

From midnight to six in the morning, I kept searching for the palace. At last, I came across a ruin behind a sand dune. I entered it and went down to the dungeons. And there was one whose entrance looked like the mouth of a lion!

I was just about to go in, when some robbers attacked me from behind and tried to snatch away the bag. I turned around and saw they were the same thugs who had attacked the monk in my dream.

“Give us that bag, or you can’t even think what we will do to you!” threatened the robbers.

I said “Leave me, and let me go in, otherwise…”

They started laughing and said, “Otherwise? What will you do?”

As they were laughing, I threw a handful of sand in their eyes. They were temporarily blinded and I ran inside the dungeon.

The robbers were following me. I reached a fork and took the right turn. Fortunately, they took the left turn at the fork and went the other way. Relieved, I moved forward. I saw a box. I went close to it and opened it. I found a face carved inside the box: this must be the great Magician Suryanarayan, my ancestor. I bowed my head before him, and not wasting a single minute, I opened the box, put the bag of magic powder inside it, and closed it.

I turned around and saw the robbers standing behind me.

“Give us that bag,” they said.

I said, “No, you will never get the magic powder now!”.

Just then, the ground began to shake and the walls of the dungeon and the ruin started to fall in because of an earthquake. A heavy stone fell on my head and knocked me out!

When I became conscious again I found myself lying outside the ruined palace. Suddenly, someone touched me from behind. I turned around, thinking it must be the robbers, but found my best friend Ratan with my teacher and other friends.

“How did you came here? You should have informed us!” said my teacher.

I said, “I don’t know how I reached here.”

The teacher said “We were worried about you. Thank God, Ratan found you. Now let’s go back to the camp.” We went back to the camp and I told Ratan the whole story.

He said, “I’m sure it was all a wild dream!”

We enjoyed our camp and went home happily!

Ankita Bansal is 14 years old and a student of class IX in New Delhi, India. She loves art & craft, music, dance and stories.

Rinku and the Magic Powder-2

by Ankita Bansal

The story so far (see Rinku and the Magic Powder-1): Rinku comes across some thugs threatening a monk on a deserted road one evening, trying to get ‘the magic powder’ from him. The monk breaks free, hands a paper bag to Rinku and escapes. The thugs close in on Rinku, and suddenly he finds himself in his bed, being woken by his mother. He dismisses the event as a dream, but then finds the Monk’s paper bag under his pillow. He hides it in his cupboard and goes hurriedly down to breakfast …

After breakfast I went to play with my friends. By the time I returned, I had forgotten about the dream and the bag. I was excited about my adventure camp with my school friends to Rajasthan. All that night I lay awake in bed, thinking about my trip the day after next.

“Have you finished your packing, beta” mother asked next morning.

In my excitement, I had forgotten to pack!

“I’ll just do it in a jiffy!” I assured her.

“Be quick. And call me if you need help,” she said and went to the kitchen.

I took out the travel bag from under my bed and opened it. I went to my cupboard to take out my clothes. As I opened the cupboard, the monk’s paper bag fell down, and I remembered all about it.

I decided to take it with me on the trip and show it to my best friend, Ratan. I finished packing my bag and placed it near the door, ready to go. In the evening when I came up to my room after dinner, I  set my alarm, went off to sleep.

The alarm went off at 5 a.m. and I bounced out of bed in excitement. Getting ready in record time, I reached school and found all my friends already waiting for me. We got into the bus and the journey started.

By late afternoon we reached the desert town of Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. We were to stay in a camp in the heart of the desert. It was already night when we reached there, so we had our dinner and straightaway went to our tents to sleep. I was so tired that I was asleep within minutes.

It must have been around midnight when I heard someone calling me. I woke up and went out of the tent. I found no one. I thought it must have been just a dream and I turned to go back.

Again, a strange, unknown voice called me. Again I turned back. This time I saw that an old man was calling me. I was unable to see his face as he was standing in dark. I went towards him. As I moved forward, the old man started running.

I was in two minds, whether or not to follow him. I decided to follow him and ran after him to ask why he had called my name. I ran and ran, but was unable to catch him. At last I stopped, tired.

I saw that the old man had also stopped a little distance away. I walked towards him but he started running again. I tried to follow him but fell down. I realized that I had tripped on a box in the sand.

I lifted up the box and opened it. In it I found a letter on which my name was written. I opened it and read…

To be continued …

Ankita Bansal is 14  years old and a student of class IX in Rukmini Devi Public School, New Delhi, India. She loves crafts and art, dance, music and stories.

Rinku and the Magic Powder-1

by Ankita Bansal

Chapter 1:  My dream or …..

I was walking along a deserted road near my home one evening, when I saw some hoodlums attacking a poor monk. They were shouting at him and asking him about ‘the magic powder’.

“Give us that magic powder, otherwise we will kill you!” they were threatening the poor monk.

The monk was frightened, but he said “I will not give it to you. It is meant for good purposes. If it falls into your hands, you will use it for wrong purposes.”

I ran towards the monk to help him. The monk was also running towards me . CLASH!!!! We both collided. I asked him if he was fine. He said nothing but quickly slipped a small bag into my hand and started running.

“Stop, wait! What’s in this bag?”’ I asked.

He did not reply and just ran for his life. Looking at the bag in my hand, I turned round and found the robbers right behind me. I was so frightened that I was unable to say a word.

“Give us that bag … otherwise …” the robbers started to say.

I was in a fix. Should I give them the bag, or should I not? Although I was scared of what they would do to me, I had just decided not to give it to them. I looked up to tell them this, and saw my mother’s face. She said “wake up!” and threw water on my face.

Looking around, I saw that I was in my room, and it was only a dream. Mother said, “You have been sleeping for a long time. Now get up”. “OK”, I said, relieved. “Go, dress and come down to breakfast quickly,” mother said.

I rubbed my eyes and when I tried to get up, I found that the end of my kurta was stuck under the pillow. As I lifted the pillow to pull out the kurta, I saw a bag just like the one in my dream. I opened it and found some white, shiny powder in it.

“What is in this bag, bhaiya,” asked my sister Pooja, appearing suddenly. “nothing,” I said and hid the bag inside my cupboard and locked it. Then, looking at the time, I ran towards the bathroom–mother would be angry if I was late for breakfast.

To be continued …

Ankita Bansal is 14 years old and a student of class IX in New Delhi, India. She loves crafts and art, music and dance, and stories.