Once upon a time...not very long ago, there lived a young, lively, full-of-dreams girl called Ashlesha. She loved dreaming...things in dreams were sometimes so beautiful and so bright, better than reality. Sometimes she would get her dreams even while taking a 20 minute nap. But dreaming wasn't the only thing she loved: she loved her friends, Maha and Sara; her family, which included her mom, dad and her elder brother Harshad - who her friends would never fail to moon over - and reading books by the moonlight or the rain, a mug of coffee in her hand.
One night, Ashi sat as usual on a fluffy chair that was always kept specially for her on the balcony, absorbing the cool fragrant night air, mixed with the wholesome smell of fresh coffee and reading a book under the soft light of the moon. But even the beauty of her surroundings couldn't make her feel good tonight, because she had just had a fight with her mother, over the usual thing they always fought over. Ashi sometimes couldn't understand at all why her brother had all the freedom that she never got: he could go wherever he wanted, come back whenever he wanted, and if she tried to go out on her own her mom would always freak out.
"You ALWAYS care more for him then for me!"
Ashi turned over another page, unable to read a word. Her eyes felt heavy and her head felt giddy...soon enough, Ashi was sleeping peacefully on her chair...
In moments, her world changed completely.
In this new world the colours were bright and beautiful yet soft and gentle to the eye...the sky was a soft baby blue, with fluffy clouds like cotton candy that was painted white...a carpet of green grass, dotted with colours of all kinds, and a rain of fairy dust sprinkled everywhere.
It was lovely but she still couldn't stop feeling sad.
"Mom still doesn't love me," she cried, "she loves Harshu bhai better."
Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and saw Maha standing behind her, looking as sad as she felt.
"Baba give your mom some time," she said gently, "she's just being really protective of you...she doesn't want anything to happen to you. Of course she loves you!"
"Stop taking HER side all the time! Everyone does!" and so sobbing, Ashi left the enchanted land, angry that even in a place as beautiful as this one nothing was perfect.
She ran back to her soft bed and hugged her teddy bear tight and cried and cried and cried. So much, that she couldn't even hear her mother knocking at the door.
But her mom came in anyway, with a glass of her favourite mango juice, and kissed her on the forehead.
"I love you, sweetheart," she whispered, "I love you so much sometimes it hurts to let you out of my sight."
She hugged Ashi, and for the first time in days Ashi hugged her back.
--
The rose garden was a little bit away from the house and was filled with flowers of all types and all colours and sizes. The smell was so sweet and heady that Ashi wanted to stay there all day.
She was dressed in the same colour as the pink flowers, in a dress made of the finest silk that swished and swirled around her ankle in the prettiest way.
It was then that she heard the click-clack of a horse's footsteps. She turned and saw a handsome prince, dressed in green and white. He had the loveliest, widest smile ever and beautiful black eyes.
"I'm Ashi," she said suddenly, blushing like mad, "what's your name?"
He blushed too. "I'm Shahid," he said, "mujhse dosti karoge?"
Ashi smiled. "Why not?"
--
Sara was painting, and usually she never liked people jumping down her throat and telling her how to paint and which colour to use and what she was doing wrong. She was damn good and painting and she knew it. But with Ashi, somehow she never could manage to get angry. After all, it was her prince charming that Sara was painting, so Sara could understand why Ashi was so jumpy. She wanted everything to be perfect.
"I don't like these dark colours you're using," Ashi complained, " use bright colours. And make his skin colour darker, this makes him look like a vampire!"
"So? Vampires are hot!" Sara said, and both of them burst out laughing.
Sara used the prettiest colours on her palette for Ashi's prince, and when she was done painting she understood exactly why Ashi was so fida over him.
--
Indeed, Ashi was mad, crazy, pagal over Shahid. All day she would dream about his smile and her floppy hair and the way he danced. He was the most perfect man alive and until then she had always thought Harshu bhaiyya was the handsomest guy in the world, but Prince Shahid was giving even her brother tough competition on that score.
She couldn't tell her mom, dad or bhaiyya, so she turned to her bestest friend, her teddy Scruffy, and told him about how happy she was.
"I don't know how he ended up choosing me!" she whispered happily, "Kahaan mein aur kahaan woh!"
She knew that if Shahid was here he would have scolded her and told her that she was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, that she was special and that no matter how many times he saw her he couldn't believe she could like him.
But of course Ashi liked him. He was perfect.
And he always understand her, not like her Harshu bhaiyya who would never get what she was trying to say.
Ashi never liked fighting with her Harshu bhaiyya very much. They loved each other like mad and no matter how many times she resented her brother getting to do whatever he liked, the two always stood for each other whenever one of them got into trouble, no questions asked.
But today was her birthday and Harshu bhaiyya wasn't giving her a laptop.
"Laptops are bad for health!" he declared, "you'll lose your eyesight and your neck will keep hurting!"
"I don't care!" Ashi said angrily, "why do you never get me anything I want?"
Harshu bhaiyya was very angry now, and left the room. Ashi scowled and hugged her teddy bear again.
Then Sara and Maha came in and Ashi started to tell them that Prince Shahid was taking her on a special date, just the kind that Harshad gave to his girlfriend Anupriya (or whichever name Ashi likes to put there hehe)...so nice and so perfect.
"Then what are we waiting for!" Sara squealed, "Forget your brother for the time being, we'll handle him. Think about how you'll get ready for your date!"
"Yeah!" Maha chimed in, "Let's go shopping!"
--
Ashi was dressed in a sky blue flowy dress, Shahid's favourite colour. He'd decorated the gazebo close to the rose garden with lots of flowers and scented candles, and on the table were plates of the best food she'd ever seen. Prince Shahid couldn't take his eyes off her and all the time he was telling her of how much he liked her and kept asking whether she liked everything.
And then they did a slow, very slow dance to Bahon ke Darmiyaan. Shahid was holding her very gently, and was always looking into her eyes. He swirled her around and kept waltzing till she was dizzy and wanted more to eat.
And at the end he said, "Will you be my girlfriend...please?"
It was so...so perfect!
Or maybe not. His shirt spoiled EVERYTHING.
He was wearing ORANGE!
"No," she said, scowling.
"But why?" Shahid asked, his face falling.
"Because you wore the wrong shirt," she said, sadly, "Everything was perfect...until I saw your shirt. Wear green next time!"
Shahid gave her his most charming smile and promised he would do just that tomorrow.
So Ashi hugged him.
--
And then...poor Ashi woke up, courtesy of her best friends Maha and Sara, and her brother Harshu bhaiyya. They pulled her off the chair and told her to come with them. They never told her, of course, that Harshu bhaiyya had been out so late only because he wanted to get his lovely little Ashi the best laptop in the world, where the wallpaper and desktop picture would be filled with Shahid Kapoor.
Sheesh, Ashi thought, they never let her even dream in peace!
Maha, Sara and Harshu bhaiyya grinned, knowing that this time she would be too happy to scold them!
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