Outstanding Stories » The Riddle Of Raja’s Ruby

“The Riddle Of Raja’s Ruby” is one of the outstanding stories (sub-junior) of the second biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Shriya Pasricha, Amity International School, Gurugram, India.

The Riddle Of Raja’s Ruby

One day, there was a train going for Stargirls Express. There were many princesses and their royal pets that came to the royal princess charm school named Aabra Ka Dabra -The magical school of wizardry and witchcraft. When I went inside the academy, we could see the wonderful and majestic magical world inside a small building which changed their dreams into reality. Everybody was very keen to experience the magnificent techniques of witchcraft.

All the princesses were asked to make a group of five, so that they will remain together in every activity and presentation till the coronation day. But, there was a group of princesses which I felt was a very unique one- ‘Kohinoor’ group that included- Saraswati, Indumati, Padmavati, Kalavati and me, Arundhati. It was actually unique because all the girls of this group were talented in different kinds of work. Padmavati was good in dancing, Kalavati in singing, Saraswati in playing Veena (a great instrument), Indumati in fashion designing and I was good in magic; as my mother, Rameshwari Devi taught me earlier only. She was the best wizard of her time!!

After a few minutes of our meet, suddenly in no time came the King of our school, Raja Harish Chandra. He was not at all a good ruler. But people around told that everyone respected him because of his magical Ruby which he attached to his crown. It is said that the King would give the ruby to the only person who will conquer and win over him. I thought that any prince could defeat him easily. But the condition was that the conqueror should be a princess! It was really an astonishing thing. Moreover he was so cruel and selfish, that people do not even want to hear his name.

After his boring speech, he gave everyone a sheet about him. As expected, everybody wrote positive about him. He got very happy and ordered the princesses to go to their group rooms and sleep, though it was just 8 o’ clock!! I ran into my Kohinoor group room and took out a book. I showed it to my teammates as well. The book was gifted to me by my father on my 6th birthday. It was about Raja Harish Chandra and the Ruby on his crown!

We all started looking fiercely inside the book, turning the pages as if in a hurry. We found the secret, that the magical ruby was a curse to the King Victor given by the Queen Victoria of London. This ruby was kept in the museum but then the Raja stole it from there and declared himself to be the messenger of the Lord. This book was written by the owner of the museum where this ruby was kept. But, unfortunately Raja did not let this book get in the hands of anyone. Luckily, my father found it anyhow and now it is with me. The truth is with me!! All the five of us went to the Raja’s palace and fortunately, stole the ruby from the crown without letting Raja know about it. We destroyed the ruby by my special powers. Oh… It did work well! Raja suddenly had a heart attack after seeing no ruby on his crown and he died. We all were very happy to our content. We all had the wonderful coronation day. It was a fabulous time with our friends.

But there was one thing that was continuously running in my mind. That was why Raja wanted a princess to win the ruby over him!! It will ever remain a cliff hanger in my mind.