India

=Arpita the Beautiful Princess= =By:Brittany Hines=

=**Once upon a time, there was a girl that lived in New Dehli, India. Her name was Arpita. Aprita had 2 step-sisters named Ellen and Joanna. Aprita has a greedy stepmother. Her name was Lillian. Lillian made Arpita do everything for Ellen, Joanna and even herself. She made Arpita do the laundry, make her food, dishes, clean her bedroom. Arpita said to herself, "Other people should help me do the things that I have to do for Lillian, Ellen, and Joanna".**=

=Later that day, a letter came to the house from Manmohan Singh. He had sent out invitations for an Independence Day Party on August 15. The stepsisters overheard Arpita talking about how she would dance all night with Mr. Singh. The next day, Arpita went downstairs and got something to eat and drink. After she got done drinking her water, she felt weird. She thought that it was something poisonous. She went to sleep and hours later she woke up. Her fairy godmother was there when Arpita opened her eyes. Arpita was sad she had nothing to wear to the party. Arpita got three wishes from her fairy godmother. She wished for a beautiful dress to wear to the Independence Day Party. The dress magically appeared. The fairy godmother tapped a mango with her wand and it turned into a orange sunset carriage. Next Arpita wished for her golden langur, her bengal tiger and her Indian elephant to change into horses to pull her carriage.=

=When Arpita got to the party everbody was dancing the traditional dance called the kathakali. The buffet table was filled with lots of food, like magoes, lentils and lassi. When Prince Zahi arrived at the party he was wearing a dhoti wrapped around his waise. When he came downstairs he saw how beautiful Arpita was dressed. She was wearing a "Saris." It is a garment made of 6 meters of cloth. He asked her if she wanted to dance. They danced and danced and danced. But then the clock struck 12 o'clock and the clock rang. She had to hurry back and give her godmother the clothes and rush back to her house. She had to get to work and make sure her step mother did not know that she was at the ball. She was giving her fairy god mother her stuff back and she realized she did not have her bindi. She did not know what happened to it.=

=After the ball, Prince Zahi found Arpita's bindi lost on the step. He took it to everyone's house in downtown New Delhi. The prince to checked to see if the bindi fit anyone. The next place that the prince traveled to was Arpita's house and the 2 stepsister's Ellen and Joanna tried on the Bindi. It didn't fit them. It kept falling down. But when Arpita tried it on, it was a perfect fit. Prince Zahi was thrilled to find Arpita at last.= = = = = =Prince Zahi and Arpita got married in a huge house with everything a person could ever want. When she walked into the main room she had found her favorite musical instrument, a Saragi. The Prince and Princess had lived happily ever after.= = =