Punkumaicha: The Nepali Cinderella

My great-grandmother in Nepal always used to tell me the story of Punkumaicha. What I have written is a version that I remember - still so clear and fresh in my mind, and I hope that you enjoy reading the story of Nepalese Cinderella.

Arnima Shrestha :)

(Picture Credit from Lukamari Stories)

The girl quickly glanced at herself in the mirror. What stared back, wasn’t recognizable to the girl, however, she knew that this was who she was now. Her body resembled a branch, thin and delicate, easy to break whenever someone stronger had the power. She stirred her lunch, which was nothing but the few leftovers that her step-sister had no desire to taste. She mixed the chicken bones, rice, and a few of the vegetables, until what she saw looked appetizing enough.

She knew that she had to finish her meal quickly and continue with her day finishing the house chores that her stepmother had assigned her. It was already noon, and she still had to finish scrubbing the bathroom, sweeping the floor, drying the clothes, and making dinner. With her last swallow, she placed her bowl into the sink and turned the faucet open. She tidied herself and her dishes, and began to continue with her chores.

Her life wasn’t always like this. Her days used to consist of laughing, eating, and reading. But that all changed when her mother was taken from her. Fate had taken her mother, but not the girl’s life. But that was snatched in an instant when another woman replaced her mother, carrying along with another girl her age. At first, when she saw her stepmother, the scars that were formed after her mother’s death had left had started to lift off the girl’s chest, but when she embraced her step-mother, she knew that she was mistaken. This was no mother, rather a monster in disguise.

But she couldn’t say anything, after all this was the same woman who made her father happy, and she didn’t have the heart to say anything to him. There were many days in which she woke up, sweating and crying due to beatings she had suffered from her step-mother, yet she decided to stay silent. She didn’t have a choice, she set aside her pain, and put her father’s happiness before hers.

One day, her father brought home a goat as a present for her.

“This is for you Punkumaicha,” he told his daughter.

She brimmed with happiness, she was content that she finally had a friend in this bitter world. She ran her fingers through the goat's fur and ruffled the top of its hair.

“Dhon Cholecha," she said softly to her new friend. “That’s what I shall call you.”

However this goat was unlike any other goat. She had the power to magically cause food to appear through her mouth.

“Naani,” the goat had told the girl one day. “What would you like to eat?”

“A proper meal of daal, bhaat and tarkari.”

Dhon Cholecha opened her mouth, and when Punkumaicha saw the meal inside it, she could not believe her eyes. When she tasted the bhaat and daal, she quickly reminisced about the homemade meals her mother once made. She had never felt this grateful, as her friend had instantly solved her daily problem of hunger.

“But Naani, don’t tell this to anyone, especially to your step-mother and step-sister, or else they will kill me,” Bakara warned, and Punkumaicha nodded and each day, she would take Dhon Cholecha out for a walk.

When she would be deep within the forest, untraceable by her step-mother and step-sister, she would tell Dhon Cholecha what she desired to eat. Sometimes she would be craving a regular meal, and sometimes she fulfilled her sweet tooth and ate ladoos and lalmon. The magic that appeared in Dhon Cholecha’s mouth allowed the Punkumaicha’s face and body to return to a healthy and recognizable state.

However one day, the step-mother caught on.

How come she’s eating the scraps of my own daughter’s leftovers, yet she looks so healthy and pretty?

“Daughter, you must go with your sister when she takes her goat out for a walk, and report everything you see,” she told her daughter, devising a plan to put an end to her palindrome.

Just as the girl was about to take Dhon Cholecha out for a walk, her step-sister ran to her and begged, “Didi, can I please come with you?”

Punkumaicha remembered Dhon Cholecha’s words, Don’t tell this to anyone, especially to your step-mother and step-sister, or else they will kill me.

“Not today,” she responded with a smile. “Maybe tomorrow.”

The step-sister knew that rejection would not help her mother, so she began to cry. She had to know the sister’s secrets.

What was she eating? She thought. She wasn’t, all she’s been intaking are my scraps!

Punkumaicha could not take the piercing screams of her sister, so she caved in and finally agreed.

After walking for around ten minutes, they had finally reached the forest. The leaves brushed each other each time a gust of wind flew in. The birds were harmonizing to a beautiful song. The sun radiated brightly, each of its rays striking at the grass, causing it to glisten.

“Didi, I have to pee,” the step-sister whined. “Let’s stop for a moment.”

“This is exactly why I didn’t want to bring you along,” Punkumaicha sighed and pointed to the opposite side. “Go do it over there.”

As the step-sister rushed over to the other side, Dhon Cholecha told Punkumaicha, “Let’s do it here, quickly.”

“I want a plate of my mom’s home-cooked lunch,” Punkumaicha responded with a smile. Taste is truly subjective, however, no one in the world is capable of correctly replicating a home-cooked dish made by a mom.

A plate of food appeared inside the goat's mouth and Punkumaicha began to quickly eat all the food. She knew that if her step-sister found out, her time with Dhon Cholecha would be limited.

“Didi, what do you have there?” the younger sister asked out of a sudden.

“Nothing,” Punkumaicha said, trying to hide her food.

“No, you have something, let me see,” the step-sister insisted.

“It’s nothing!” Punkumaicha snapped, resulting in her step-sister starting to cry. Although she didn’t like her step-sister much, she couldn’t bear to see her in tears, so she shared her plate of food. That’s when Dhon Cholecha knew that her death had already been engraved, and it was as if she heard the snipping of a yarn.

“Don’t tell anyone about this,” Punkumaicha pleaded.

The step-sister nodded, using her greedy fingers to stuff her mouth.

When they arrived home, Dhon Cholecha’s face was void of happiness, she knew what was going to happen. She knew that people with evil hearts like the step-mother and step-sister could never have any ounce of empathy for anyone other than themselves. With each second, she felt that her life was getting shorter, but she knew that she couldn’t leave Punkumaicha to this cruel world.

After the younger sister had left, Dhon Cholecha told Punkumaicha:

“Naani, they will kill me now, I’m sure of it. But don’t cry. When they cut me, be sure to take all of my bones, and plant them in the forest. Out of that forest, a large yomari tree will appear from the ground. And whatever you do, don’t eat my meat, not even if they force you to.”

Punkumaicha began to cry, her uneven breathing caused Dhon Cholecha to tear up, the goat was aware that after she would depart from this life, Punkumaicha would have no one to rely on.

“It’s all my fault,” Punkumaicha sobbed. “If only I had listened to you.”

“It’s not your fault Naani. Don’t blame yourself for the anger and hatred in one’s heart. That seed is not planted by others, only one has enough power to do that to themselves.”

“Dhon Cholecha, run away. I’ll help you escape,” Punkumaicha quickly thought off, wiping off her tears.

“I cannot Naani, for if I did, you would be alone in this world, and I cannot resort to such selfishness.”

Dhon Cholecha’s words were proven right this minute when the step-sister ran to her mother with glee and repeated everything her two selfish eyes saw.

“Ha! That foolish girl! How dare she keep that away from me! Tonight with your father's axe, we will slaughter the very thing that gives her happiness.”

***

That afternoon, Dhon Cholecha’s head was separated from the rest of her body. Punkumaicha did as she was instructed. When chopping up the body of Dhon Cholecha, she separated the bones and hid them in a cupboard, she couldn’t let her step-mother know what she was doing, or else Dhon Cholecha’s sacrifice would be meaningless.

When her step-mother told her to come to eat, she refused and responded with, “I’m not hungry.”

When everyone was asleep that night, she snuck out to the forest and planted Dhon Cholecha’s bones in the area when she and Dhon Cholecha came to spend time together. For the first time after Dhon Cholecha’s death, she finally let out the waterfall of tears she had been keeping that entire night. Dhon Cholecha was the only one after her mother’s death that truly comforted her. The moments with Dhon Cholecha allowed her life to be more bearable, more livable, and less quiet. Now she was back to where she was before Dhon Cholecha’s existence. A world pervaded with silence.

yomari tree

The days that passed were silent, the only time Punkumaicha could truly breathe was when she climbed up the tree planted with Dhon Cholecha’s bones. She plucked one of the yomari’s out and plopped one in her mouth. She felt a variety of emotions when she was up this high, and it was the only time when the silence would be blocked off. Sometimes her heart would cry for the wind’s sobs. She wished that she could do something for it, but she couldn’t.

Other times, if she focused hard enough she could hear the chuckles of grass after a gust of wind after tickling one another. These weren’t the only emotions she felt, however, they were the most frequent.

One day, as she was perched up high on the tree, eating yomari after yomari, she heard footsteps approaching. She glanced down and below her was an elderly couple. Little did Punkumaicha know that they were demons disguised as humans.

“Naani, give us a yomari please,” they pleaded.

She did as they asked, and tossed the yomari’s below her. This was a gift from Dhon Cholecha, not only to her but for the entire world, thus, she thought it would only be fair if she shared this with the rest of the world.

“Naani, our eyesight is so poor that we can’t find any of them on the ground,” one of them explained.

“Would you be so kind to come down and give up some?” the other one requested.

Upon hearing this, she grabbed a couple of yomari’s and climbed down. She could feel the sadness in their voices, and wanted to help out with ever she could.

“Here you go!” she said, distributing her yomari’s to the two monsters. They showed her a smile that warmed her heart.

“Naani, as I said, our eyesight isn’t the best, would you mind coming along with us for the night and helping us make dinner?”

She was a kindhearted girl, thus she nodded and followed the couple. When they arrived at a house, she plopped off and began to walk.

“Naani, stay here and make roti’s, we need to go out and get a few things.”

Once again, Punkumaicha nodded and was left alone. She began to make the rotis. It was a tough job, but she wiped off the beads of sweat on her forehead and swept her hair into a ponytail. When she finally reached the stage of rolling the roti, when a rush of tiredness swept over her, she decided not to give up. After a half-hour, she had finished, and the aroma of the roti made its way throughout the house.

“Give me a piece of roti. Give me a piece of roti and I’ll tell you something important,” a mouse suddenly squeaked as it appeared out of a small cupboard.

She didn’t believe that giving the mouse a piece of roti would harm anyone, and so she ripped off a piece of roti and handed it to the mouse.

“Give me a piece of roti. Give me a piece of roti and I’ll tell you something important,” the mouse squeaked again.

Once again, she tore off a piece of the roti and handed it to the mouse.

“Give me a piece of roti. Give me a piece of roti and I’ll tell you something important,” the mouse repeated again.

Without a twinge of annoyance, Punkumaicha tore off another piece, giving it to the mouse.

“If you stay here any longer, the monsters that brought you here will eat you! Go down to the basement, and take as much gold as you can carry and run out of here!” The mouse advised her.

She listened and headed down to the basement. The amount of gold almost blinded her, but by placing one of her hands on the lower side of her forehead, she pushed through it and began to stuff her dress with as much gold as she could.

She thanked the mouse and ran as fast as she could until she reached home.

Her step-mother was shocked with how much gold Punkumaicha had found, and asked her, “How did you get all of that?”

“I was sitting on top of the yomari tree when I was approached by two monsters. They told me to follow them home and so I did,” she responded, forgetting to tell them the most crucial part - what the mouse had told her.

“Maiya, do what your sister did, and bring back even more gold!” the mother instructed her daughter.

The next day, the step-sister did as she was told. She climbed the tree and when approached by the two monsters, she tossed them the yomari’s. When they also asked her for help, she plopped down and climbed on top of one of them, following them home.

“Naani, stay here and make us some roti,” they told her. “We’ll be back in an hour, we just need to get a few ingredients.”

Like her older sister, she did as she was ordered. She was pleased with her handcrafted roti’s, which were the best that she had ever seen. With each minute, she was getting less and less patient, she wanted to get her gold and get back to her day.

“Give me a piece of roti. Give me a piece of roti and I’ll tell you something important,” the same mouse suddenly emerged and announced.

Like Punkumaicha, the step-sister tore off a piece of the roti and gave it to the mouse.

“Give me a piece of roti. Give me a piece of roti and I’ll tell you something important,” the same mouse repeated.

Once again, she gave the mouse another piece of roti, but she started to get impatient.

The final time the mouse said, “Give me a piece of roti. Give me a piece of roti and I’ll tell you something important,” the sister felt that her blood was boiling and without an inch of sympathy, she grabbed her spatula and crushed the mouse with it.

***

The monsters arrived shortly, and said, “Wow look at this amazing work!”

“Naani, we are tired, so let’s sleep and then eat dinner. And turn off the lights, as they hurt our eyesight!”

The step-sister switched off the lights and followed them to their bed.

“You might fall off the bed, so sleep in the middle, Naani.”

Once again, she did as she was told, and fell asleep.

She was awake when she felt something sticky, like oil, on her skin. But the darkness limited her sight, so she wasn’t sure what it was.

“What are you doing?” she asked the monsters.

“Nothing, there just tends to be a lot of mosquitos here, so we wanted to put some lotion on you,” one of them replied.

She thought nothing of it, dreaming of the pot of gold that would make her mother so happy, and fell back asleep.

She awoke once again due to the pain she felt on her leg. It was as if someone was cutting through it with a knife. “Ouch!” she cried. “What is that?!”

“That’s just the mosquitoes,” the same monster assured her. “Just go back to sleep, the lotion we put on you, should be effective in a while.”

And so, she tried to fall back asleep but woke up throughout the night when she felt the pain move from her legs to the arms to her stomach, until she didn’t feel anything.

The next day, back at Punkumaicha’s house, the step-mother wore her finest dress and waited for her daughter to bring her the riches. She was planning all of the things she could do with that amount of money when she heard the singing of the crows.

She squinted and saw the bones of her daughter hung up on a tree.

The crow squawked:

“Here, the mother is dressed up so nice when her daughter’s bone has decorated the trees.”