The Butterfly Fairytale

The cocoon lay nestled under the white rose’s leaf. All the flowers in the garden wondered what colour butterfly this one would be. Grandma butterfly kept a close watch. Since none of little ones in her family were red in colour, she hoped this one would be deep, dazzling red, with streaks of yellow and black.This cocoon did not belong to her family, but had somehow magically appeared in the garden. Being the head of the garden butterflies, Grandma had a responsibility to take care of the cocoon.
Spring approached, and the cocoon’s immense struggle began. Little by little the butterfly inched out. The flowers looked on, grandma butterfly sat close to it, Aunt butterfly flitted about watching on concernedly, praying that all should go off well. Atlast it emerged. Grandma hovered around – “the colour?, the colour?” she thought. Aunt was just glad that baby had emerged unscathed. Cousins stopped by to see.Baby was glad that the struggle was over. The sun felt warm and nice. He slowly stretched out and unfurled its wings.A collective gasp went up. The flowers shivered in disbelief, some of the cousins closed their eyes, Grandma was stunned, and Aunt puzzled. Baby had NO colour. He was colourless. Ohhhhh – a colourless butterfly ???

“IMPOSSIBLE” screamed Grandma.

Baby didn’t know what the fuss was all about. He flew to the nearest flower – but the flower just shook itself vigorously. No, it couldn’t allow a freak to settle on it. Baby was perplexed, he went to next flower….same result. Grandma butterfly thought enough was enough and pushed Baby to the lowest shrub, under the long, large leaf. Grandma wasn’t going to allow the other garden butterflies to know that a freak, with no idea of who its parents were, had been born in her garden.But word got around, wherever Baby went, it would hear the cousins mocking him. Only few sympathetic flowers allowed him to sit on them. Baby was a sad, lonely butterfly. “But why discriminate on the basis of colour?” Baby asked the wise old snail. Snailey just smiled sadly. The long leaf under which Baby lived was its only friend. One day when Baby crawled out from under the long leaf, he saw that the garden filled with a dazzling golden light. All the butterflies were crowded around the light source . Curiosity got the better of Baby, and it flew towards the crowd of butterflies. Along the way it met Snailey, who told him that two angels had come from God’s garden in Heaven. They were looking for one special butterfly, which had somehow fallen off from the Heaven garden. God had sent them to search and bring back the lost butterfly.Reaching the crowd, Baby saw that Grandma was prodding most of the cousins to show themselves off, so that the angels could select the “special” one. Grandma thought, maybe the “special one” was the feisty Green Beauty, or maybe the uber cool Blue Wonder, or the delicate and cute Pink delight. Alas, the angels had eyes for none….”what are they looking for?” Grandma thought impatiently.No body noticed when Baby flitted forward….he was hardly noticeable. “Huh, a freak with no colour did not deserve any attention” thought the Moss Brown bully cousin.Suddenly one of the angels smiled, “Ahh there is the Special One”. All turned to seewho it is, and again the collective gasp. Surely the angel could not mean Baby….how can it be? Baby did not even have a single colour to show off….even the earthly flowers rejected him, how on earth could Heaven’s flowers deserve him?The Angels serenaded a very perplexed Baby with their harps. After all God’s creatures deserved that.“But how am I the chosen one – I’m colourless” asked Baby.The angels explained that God’s garden in heaven had colourless butterflies. God has filled His garden with all the hues and colours imaginable, and the colourless butterflies while flitting from one flower to another just uphold the colour of the flower. They donot have their own colours, but acquire whichever colour God wants. They are special because they donot have their own egos, they are ready to take on whichever colour God wants them to get.All the other butterflies listened in amazement.Look at Baby exclaimed one Angel. When it sits on the white rose, Baby is a white butterfly, and when it goes to the orange lily, it becomes orange. The red hibiscus lends a bit of itself to Baby when it sits on it. So Baby goes about doing its work silently, getting all the colours God wants it to get…..yes, Baby is the lost butterfly from God’s garden.All the butterflies were amazed. They too wished that they could shed their egos and get filled with God’s colours

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This Holi, I wish you the same….let you too be filled with all of God’s colours for ever and ever……dazzle on my special ones.

A very Happy Holi to you.