Metamorphosis: Legends Come to Life . . .

By Sankalpita Mullick

Every story has a hero and a villian.There is always an evil stepmother,the power-hungry chief or a cunning friend. I had always wondered what had happened to the villains after the great battle. The heroes got their happily ever after but the villains who had actually put in similar effort in the fight were left to rot. Two people fighting each other can never be that different. They just believe in different things. I thought it to be unfair that they werent given a second chance because at the end of the day they did not lose because they were entirely bad but because they had that one bad trait which led to their downfall. Be it pride, obsession, insecurity or hate, they too had a life before it was uprooted and made into pulp. So I sincerely hope you enjoy this story about villains, enemies and hate which teach us about heroes, friendship and love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Sep 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781482884531

Sankalpita Mullick

Sankalpita Mullick is a girl of fourteen years who’s studying in the tenth standard and is the captain of her house in her school, Maneckji Cooper Education Trust School, Mumbai, India. She has won the first position in the Nationwide Creative Writing Competition in 2015 and got an annual contract of one lakh rupees for writing with LaughGuru. From a tender age, Sankalpita has been inclined towards writing and has won the Hindustan Times Award in 2012 when she was just ten years old. She was selected as one of the fifty brightest minds of Mumbai from 42,547 students of 275 schools and awarded a sum of 50,000 rupees and a trophy. Sankalpita has proved her mettle by being a state-level champion (Maharashtra State) in the Marrs International Spelling Bee Competition in 2012 and was a finalist in 2013. The renowned newspaper Hindustan Times again felicitated Sankalpita for being a winner in the “Make a Difference” contest in 2013. Her talents are not only limited to writing as she also has received a chain of awards in interschool science quizzes, wildlife quizzes, debates, computer quizzes, computer talks, extempore speeches, elocutions, declamations, ad masters (a competition about creating a product and advertising it). She had made a part of an animation film in the Vienna Film Festival in 2012. She has also written and directed a play on World Environment Day with a team of about twenty children for two consecutive years when she was just eleven and twelve years old. She is a voracious reader and a prolific writer, and her writings have often been published in newspapers and magazines. Along with her accolades, Sankalpita has the gift of compassion, kindness, and a good sense of humour, which makes her a beautiful person. She lives in Mumbai, India, with her parents and what she describes as the cutest pet ever.

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 by Sankalpita Mullick.

Interior Illustrations by Sankalpita Mullick

ISBN:       Softcover       978-1-4828-8454-8

                 eBook           978-1-4828-8453-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

www.partridgepublishing.com/india

Index (read at your own risk):

I.   The Bombshell

Some Facts on Ross Island

II.   The Vexing Voyage

III.   The School

IV.   Irksome Introductions

V.   Making Best Friends and Worst Enemies

VI.   Royal Rooms

VII.   The Teachers Guide

VIII.   What Not To Do

IX.   Boggling Books

X.   Creepy Classes

XI.   Horrifying Homework

XII.   The Deceptively Dreary Day

XIII.   Not The … Tests!!

XIV.   The Lurking Loner

XV.   Rendevous with the Rival

XVI.   The Stunning Secret

XVII.   The Ostentatious Oath

XVIII.   The Stupendous Stupa

XIX.   Predatory Pets

XX.   Preposterous Preparations

XXI.   The Battle

XXII.   …But is it the End Yet?

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this book to my parents-

Dr. Paramita Mukherjee Mullick and Mr. Sudip Mullick

and the cutest pet ever, Harry.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank so many people that reader, you should get a tub of popcorn and some coffee to keep you company. This is going to be long. I would first and foremost thank my parents for helping me with my book and my pet for not screaming his head off while I was writing my book. I cannot thank Partridge enough for helping me accomplish this feat. I thank my wonderful grandparents and a fistful of true friends that I have. I would like to thank you-the reader for taking some time out and reading my book and (hopefully) enjoying it. Last but not the least; I thank my teachers without whom school wouldn’t be half as fun.

THANK YOU ALL!!

PREFACE

I had always wondered what had happened to the villains after the battle. The heroes got their happily ever after but the villains who had actually put in similar effort in the fight were left to rot. Two people fighting each other can never be that different. They just believe in different things. I thought it to be unfair that they weren’t given a second chance because at the end of the day they did not lose because they were entirely bad but because they had that one bad trait which led to their downfall. Be it pride, obsession, insecurity or hate, they too had a life before it was uprooted and made into pulp. So I sincerely hope you enjoy this story about villains, enemies and hate which teach us about heroes, friendship and love.

Over and out,

Sankalpita Mullick.

FOREWORD

I have seen my daughter Sankalpita Mullick bloom from a tiny bud to a beautiful flower. Not only does her charming smile make her attractive but also her intelligence, her clarity of thought and compassionate nature make her a wonderful teenager. Pebble, as I lovingly call her, astonished me one day when she told me she was writing a novel. After reading the manuscript I was overwhelmed to see the maturity in a fourteen year old girl. At this tender age she feels a villain in the mythological stories also needs a second chance. We adults condemn such villains as losers whereas she, a young teenager feels that they too have their good qualities. I am happy to introduce this book to you which changed my perception of the word ‘villain’.

Dr. Paramita Mukherjee Mullick

August 15, 2016

The Bombshell

"Would you like to know your future?

If your answer is yes, think again. Not knowing is the greatest life motivator.

So enjoy, endure, survive, each moment as it comes to you in its proper sequence -- a surprise."

– Vera Nazarian,

The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiratio

I pressed the enter button on my new search. I had typed ‘Metamorphosis’ in the search engine and was now staring at a new page with bloodshot eyes. This new tab had a picture of a magnificent black building standing amidst a clearing surrounded by vast forested lands. The only question that was nagging me at the back of my mind was that, What was I doing at 3 am on a Monday, searching some boring school in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands? Answering this question was hard because I was being dragged away from my family, from my friends, from my school and the beautiful, life-of-party attitude of Mumbai because of some…..test?