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How the Onion Got Its Layers – An Excerpt

Have you noticed how the onion has so many layers? And have you seen your mother’s eyes water when she cuts an onion? Here is a remarkable story to tell you why. India’s favourite storyteller brings alive this timeless tale with her inimitable wit and simplicity. Dotted with charming illustrations, this gorgeous chapter book is the ideal introduction for beginners to the world of Sudha Murty.

 

Read below an excerpt from the book:

 

The kingdom of Ullas was very prosperous. The subjects were happy, the farmers had grown a bumper crop and the kingdom was surrounded by friendly allies. But the king and queen of Ullas were very sad. Their sadness seemed to envelop them wherever they went. This was because they really longed for a child and did not have one.

 

 

One day, they learnt of a place in the forests in the kingdom where, if you prayed hard and well, you were granted your wish.
They went there and for many days, prayed to the goddess of the forest for a long time. Finally, their prayers were heard and the goddess appeared before them in a flash of green light.
‘What do you wish for, my dear children?’ she asked.
The king and queen, overjoyed, bowed low and said, ‘We wish to have a child.’
‘So be it, you will soon have a little girl,’ said the goddess, shimmering in the greenery. ‘But remember, though she will be a loving child, she will have one flaw: She will love new clothes too much and it will make life difficult for you. Do you still want such a child?’
The king and queen looked at each other with their eyes full of hope and love. ‘Yes, we do,’ they said to the goddess. ‘We can’t think of anything else we want more in this world.’
The goddess smiled and vanished back among the trees.

Get your e-copy of How the Onion Got its Layers here 🙂

Professor Shonku & Other Iconic Satyajit Ray Books for the Young Ones

We’re delighted to be marking the 99th birthday of the legendary author and film maker Satyajit Ray with launch of The Final Adventures of Professor Shonku. This is the last volume in the children’s series on Professor Shonku’s escapades and once again brings alive the wildly imaginative world of the weird and wonderful protagonist.

 

Who is Professor Shonku?

FULL NAME: Trilokeshwar Shonku.

In Bengali, Shonku means a cone. Trilokeshwar means the ‘lord of heaven, earth and hell’. It is also a play on the name Trishanku, a mythical figure who tried to reach the heavens but was punished by the gods to forever remain stranded somewhere between heaven and earth.

BIRTHDAY: 16 June. Birth year estimated to be 1912

QUALIFICATIONS: BSc in physics and chemistry. A child prodigy, he graduated from college when he was sixteen. Honorary doctorate from the Swedish Academy of Sciences

HOMETOWN: Giridih

PET: Cat called Newton

MANSERVANT: Prahlad

NEIGHBOUR: Avinash Babu

FRIENDS: William Crole Jeremy Saunders, John Summerville

 

How did Professor Shonku come to be?

The first book in which Prof. Shonku appeared was simply called Professor Shonku. Published in 1965, it was Ray’s first book, though the stories had been written between 1961 and Professor Shonku was dedicated to Ray’s son, Sandip, who was eleven years old then. The inscription in the original book read ‘To Sandip Babu’. (Sandip’s pet name is Babu.) This was the only time Ray dedicated any of his books. One of the earliest examples of science-fiction writing in any Indian language, this book won the Government of India’s prize for Best Book for the Young.

 

Apart from this new volume which brings alive the wildly imaginative world of Professor Shonku, there are various books by Satyajit Ray that you can read with your young ones:

The Mystery of Munroe Island and Other Stories

Join Professor Trilokeshwar Shonku, eccentric genius and scientist, on an incredible world tour as he confronts a daring doppelganger,undertakes an experiment to create pure gold, unravels the mystery of a scientist’s loss of memory and visits an unknown island to look for an amazing fruit, amongst other escapades.

Featuring the indomitable Professor Shonku and a bunch of madcap characters is presented here in a brilliant new translation that brings alive the magic and charm of Satyajit Ray’s imaginative world.

The Unicorn Expedition

Professor Shonku cannot dismiss without proof the possibility that unicorns do exist somewhere on earth. In fact, Charles Willard, a fellow scientist, claimed to have actually seen them in Tibet, but, unfortunately, died shortly afterwards. So, when Shonku learns that another expedition is starting off for Tibet, he jumps at the opportunity to trace Willard’s route and find the unicorns. Tibet is just one of the exotic places Professor Shonku’s exploits take him in this volume of stories.

The Emperor’s Ring

A stolen ring. A private menagerie. A mysterious ‘spy’ . . .

The first novel to feature master sleuth Feluda and his teenage assistant Topshe, The Emperor’s Ring is full of adventure, mystery and intrigue.

Feluda and Topshe are on holiday in Lucknow when a priceless Mughal ring is stolen. Feluda begins to investigate the case and finds himself hot on the trail of a devious criminal.

 

The murder of a stranger in a Calcutta hotel leads Feluda and his friends to Kathmandu, straight into the den of Maganlal Meghraj, their old adversary. With an incident at Swayambhunath, an ambush in a prayer wheel factory, a thrilling night at the casino, and a prolonged LSD-induced delusion for Jatayu, the case soon turns into a memorable adventure. In a sensational climax, the master sleuth uncovers an international racket in spurious drugs and emerges victorious yet again.

 

On the Run with Fotikchand

An eleven-year-old boy; Bablu; gets kidnapped by four goons. As they make their escape in a stolen car; they meet with an accident and two of the goons die on the spot while the boy loses consciousness. The two surviving kidnappers; presuming the boy to be dead; leave him stranded. When Bablu regains consciousness; he realizes he has lost his memory. In his wanderings; he befriends a street juggler; Harun; who gives him shelter and introduces him to a new way of life. Bablu; now called Fotik; spends his days working in a tea shop; while his evenings are spent assisting Harun on his street shows.

On the Run with Fotikchand is a thrilling story of everlasting friendship. Riveting and racy; it’ll have you turning the pages till the end.

Adventures Of Feluda: The Bandits of Bombay

A murder in an elevator. A trail of heady perfume. The nanasaheb’s priceless naulakha necklace.

Feluda, Topshe and Jatayu are in Bombay where Jatayu’s latest book is being filmed under the title Jet Bahadur. Soon after Jatayu hands over a package to a man in a red shirt, a murder takes place in the high-rise where the producer lives. Feluda and his companions find themselves in the midst of one of their most thrilling adventures ever, with a hair-raising climax aboard a train during location shooting.

 


All titles mentioned here are available as e-books. So you can start reading them today!

Nizrana Farook on the ‘Soggy Middle’ and Other Writing Challenges

A book that focuses on a character that steals not only the Queen’s jewels but also an elephant? How did Nizrana Farook, the author of The Girl Who Stole an Elephant,  come up with the idea for such a book?

Read the Q & A below and find out:

 

  1. What inspired you to write the book?

I’m not quite sure exactly how the inspiration for this book came. All I know is that I was writing a piece for a task on my MA and it turned out to be the first chapter of my book. It was only ever intended to be a short piece, but I was excited by the protagonist and setting and I just grew the story from there.

 

  1. Are there any characters that you can relate with from the book?

I’d like to say it’s Chaya, the protagonist, but in reality I’m probably more Nour than her. Her experience of leeches in the jungle was very much mine!

 

  1. How did you choose these characters?

Chaya came to me fully formed. I knew she was a thief but I had to work out her motivation for being one. I wanted her to have a friend who was a calming influence on her, so that’s how Neel came about. I created Nour because I felt that there needed to be someone who was an outsider to that world, so the reader could see the world and have some of their questions answered through her.

 

  1. Were the characters inspired by some people in your life?

Not really. I have taken bits from people I know and cobbled them together to form different characters, but no one is based fully on anyone.

 

  1. When did you start writing the book?

I wrote the first words in December 2016. So it took three years exactly to go from putting pen to paper (or fingers to laptop in this case) to the book being available in shops in the UK. It was a super speedy roller coaster of a ride – from finishing the manuscript to finding an agent and getting a publishing deal and then editing the book to publication.

 

  1. Were there any challenges?

Plenty! I started writing the book without any plan. I simply wrote the most exciting story I could think of without worrying about where it was going. At some point I had to stop and think it out. So the “soggy middle” of the book was the hardest part of all. The editing threw up many challenges, but thanks to my lovely editor Kirsty Stansfield, we got there in the end.

 

  1. Are you a dog person or cat person?

Cat.

 

  1. Pineapple on a pizza. Yes or No?

Definitely yes.


Will stealing the Queen’s jewels be the beginning or the end of everything for Chaya and her gang? Check out The Girl Who Stole an Elephant to find out!

 

Easter 2020: The World is a ‘Cave’

How to Survive These Times Through the Niti Teachings

What is it about caves? If you sit down to think, you’ll find that history is specked with stories (across regions) that feature this hollow space made by nature—right from our ancestors, the early man. The cave dwellings, then cave drawings (or perhaps first art galleries), and then we move to more sophisticated stories.

Moses and St. Elijah spent time in a cave. Maimonides, the foremost Judaic polymath wrote his seminal book while exiled in a cave. When Empress Helena visited Palestine in 327 A. D., she stated that the blessed Mother Mary conceived in a cave, gave birth in one, and eventually settled down to raise a family in one, too. In fact, Helena found many Christian mystics living as hermits in hillside caves. Then we have Catherine of Siena who went to a cave. And Prophet Mohammed heard the Koran for the first time in the Cave of Hira.

Moving closer home, we too have many stories about this hollow space. Tibet has the cave where the famous killer-turned-yogi Milarepa meditated. In Kashmir, the ancient Rishis would take abode in the many caves there. The luminous Abhinavagupta’s Bhairava Cave in Beerwah, J&K, is celebrated for transcendence. The Amarnath Cave is, of course, where the supreme secret was revealed. And moving down in southern India, we have the Virupaksha Cave of Ramana Maharishi, which is visited by hundreds of thousands.

So, what is the power of a ‘cave’? Is there a power of the cave? And how does a cave offer solution in a time like this—the pandemic?

Plato’s insightful Allegory of the Cave gives a hint that the outside is a shadow and truth lies elsewhere. In the book, Dawn The Warrior Princess of Kashmir, the final answer is given in the cave of Mount Kailash where Shiva meditates. It is there that Dawn, the sixteen-year-old protagonist who is also the last living woman in the world, lives, to be precise, in a cave called Trisarsha in the year 3000 AD. So, the cave becomes a “pod” where the senses die but it becomes a womb where something magical is born—the power of the last woman standing is manifested here.

On Sunday April 12th the Catholics will celebrate Easter Sunday while the Orthodox Easter falls on April 19th. The connection between Dawn and Easter is deep. Dawn or “Usha” in Sanskrit is the most important Goddess in the Rig Veda. She is the harbinger of the rebirth of life each morn. She is the only Indian Goddess who has spread around the world. Her cognates are Eos in Greek, Aurora in Roman, and Eostre in English, which is the root of the word Easter—the festival of resurrection. Interestingly, Usha is also the name of the sanctuary city where the Sanhedrin or Rabbinical Court fled to in the 2nd century.  It is important to remember that in addition to the celebrated Gayatri Mantra honoring her, she is also the Goddess of Order; the driver away of chaos and darkness. She is dawn, she is hope, she is resurrection.

Dawn is the key-holder to the ultimate life-hack—Niti—which is, simply put, the most powerful technology invented by humanity. Niti means “the wise conduct of life”. The Kashmirians maintained that one is born with only one birth right, namely the freedom to achieve what is one’s life quest. And what is the ‘way of life’ so that one can maximize one’s human potential? The Kashmirians defined life’s end goal in heroic terms as “unbounded fulfillment while alive” whether physical or meta-physical.

Niti’s promise is that it enables one to face any threat, any challenge to reaching one’s goal as one travels through Time and Space. These threats are the daily near-death forces in that they snip off one’s fulfillment in some way or the other culminating in the final death of an unfulfilled life. To become a ‘Niti Warrior’ is one’s birthright: the mark of a swatantra, free human. But what happens to Niti and the Niti Warrior during unprecedented times as the one where we are living now—during the Covid 19 pandemic which is an existential threat for all of humanity? What is the wise conduct here? How does Niti enable one to cause the Death of Death?

In the novel, Dawn states, ‘‘Health is the unrestricted movement of the body, mind and heart. This movement is powered by the bio-plasmic Life Breath.’

The Niti formula is quite explicit. It requires one to do deep learning; act bravely with compassion; and be with close friends. It was first articulated by Pandit Vishnu Sharma in the Panchatantra. The deep learning about the deadly virus is that the virus has understood humans better than even humans understand themselves. It has made our unrestricted movement its vector, used our strongest social instincts of physical bonding against us. The virus,  learnt this through mutation; so we must take that Darwinian learning and mutate ourselves. Mutate to a behavior of no movement and the virus dies. Remember that it is not the strong that survive but the ones who adapt. Change we must at the individual level, at the community level and at the level of humanity to survive.

And if the call comes then we must act bravely and with compassion. Not just the front-line essential services fighters—the doctors, nurses, first responders, grocery sellers, vegetable vendors etc.—but each and every one of us can contribute to this war. In this regard a very special Easter blessing awaits the Corona virus survivors—the ones who had the blessing to live through this. They can be the carrier of the born-again healing touch through contributing their anti-bodies which is verily the gift of Jesus Christ. What is essential, says the Niti way of life, is that we stay connected to our loved ones. That is what keeps our Shakti consciousness alive. If we follow this Niti formula, then Covid 19 will fail to take our life-breath away. We will then experience the next thing that Dawn realizes and states in the novel: ‘The property of our Life Breath is freedom. It is this freedom that leads to creativity.’

If we look at our current condition as an opportunity and just give ourselves the chance inside our cave, then we will discover that we are slowly but inexorably drawn towards creative activities whether it is something as fundamental as cooking or artistic such as  writing or painting or even spiritual expansion. Niti’s manifestation that is creativity is the ‘Life of Life’ which in turn is the cause of the ‘Death of Death’. And in the laboratories around the world it is the scientists who are detonating creativity. They will come up with not just one answer but multiple answers which will finish this scourge forever. That is the promise of Niti. And the Life Force will triumph again. So it has been so it will be.

Are you Smarter than Havaldar Hook?

Are you stuck at home and want to do something entertaining with the young ones? Havaldar Hook is here for you!

He wants you and your child to give him some answers!

Did you think Hawaldar Hook was done? He has some more questions for you!


Want to have more fun with Havaldar Hook? Check out our Hook Books: Hey Diddle DiddleA Quiet Girl ,Who’s There? and My Daddy and the Well

 

 

Psst… Here are answers for Worksheet 1:
Horse – Foal or Colt (male) or Filly (female)
Goat – Kid
Hen – Chicken

 

Answers for Worksheet 2:
You’ll just have to ask for help from people around you!

7 Asian Women who Fearlessly Pursued their Dreams

Through the ages strong, inspirational women and girls have risen in response to uncertainty and injustice. Fearless chronicles the journeys and stories of such amazing and strong women – demonstrating that one girl can change everything.

If you were looking to be inspired today, read about these 7 asian women who fearlessly pursued their dreams:

Shukria Khanum

Shukria Khanum was a female aviator – one of the first of her kind in Pakistan. She obtained a commercial pilot’s license despite women not being allowed to fly commercial planes at the time. She subsequently became a flight instructor  because she never gave up on her dream!.

Majida Rizvi

She was the first ever female judge of a Pakistani High Court and had a reputation for integrity and impartiality. Even after retirement Majida has continued to fight for gender equality and human rights in Pakistan.

Shamim Ara

Shamim began her career as an actress and subsequently became one of Pakistan’s leading ladies. But her true talent was producing and directing. She mastered what was at the time the male dominated area of cinema and she changed how women were portrayed in Pakistani cinema.

Zubeida Mustafa

Zubeida was an influential journalist at a time where there were very few women involved in the profession. She worked for Pakistan’s most influential and circulated daily, Dawn. Her stellar writing quality and persistence led her to a long and successful career in journalism.

Ameena Saiyid Obe

Ameena pursued her love of books by starting her own publishing company, Saiyid Books as well as working as Managing Director of Oxford University Press in Pakistan where she grew the company exponentially. She also cofounded the Karachi Literature Festival and is lauded for promoting the love of reading in Pakistan.

Shahida Malik

Shahida was the first high-ranking two-star female general in the Pakistani Army. Although she faced challenges and opposition from her male colleagues, she did not let it stop her and she went on to serve as the Deputy Commander and Inspector General of the Pakistan Army Medical Corps.

Quratulain Bakhtiari

Quratulain is a community activist, educationist and Nobel Peace Prize Nominee. She has worked extensively with refugees and her efforts have led to the establishment of thousands of schools.


These are but a few examples of the tenacity and strength displayed by women in overcoming challenges and pursuing their dreams. You can read further about these women and many more in Fearless

From picture books to Hook Books: Why your child needs Hook Books!

The Hook Books are early chapter books for very young readers, aged five and above (for being read to) and six and above (for reading independently). Written by award-winning and most-loved writers for children, and illustrated in exuberant colour by some of India’s best illustrators, these stories are set largely in non-urban settings.

Why Hook Books? Sayoni Basu, editor of the Hook Books explains why you and your child should be reading these.

Who’s There? || Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, Anupama Ajinkya Apte

It is an accepted fact that every child reads at a different pace. Reading levels and grade targets and lexile levels work up to a point, but children’s actual reading abilities vary widely within these levels and frequently fall outside them on either side. This is especially true in India in the case of books in English—English might be the first, second or third language, and is introduced at different ages.

The challenge for authors and publishers is to therefore create books which can work for wide age groups. Books which are both simple and complex: with a vocabulary that works for kids of five and six, who are graduating from picture books to books with more words, yet with a story that would interest a reader who may be a lot older.

My Daddy and the Well || Jerry Pinto, Lavanya Naidu (Illustrator)

This was one of our goals in the Hook Book series.

The longer we work in children’s publishing, the more clearly we realise the impossibility of linking age group to reading ability. So we wanted to create books that satisfy the metro parents’ desire to fast-forward their child’s reading achievements, and yet allow children the pleasure of reading well-written stories that appeal to them.

Hey Diddle Diddle || Anushka Ravishankar, Priya Kuriyan (Illustrator)

The second goal we set ourselves is to have a diversity of experiences in these books. Many of our readers live in cities and are in many ways deracinated. Living within an urban bubble and interacting only with other children like themselves, it is easy for them to lose touch with the the fact that despite belonging to the same country, we are diverse in the way we look, the way we live, the religious practices we follow, and social habits. So one of our goals in this series was also to try to bring together stories of small towns from different parts of the country. This is done subtly, through the names of the characters and the lives that are depicted and through visuals. There is no explicit mention or discussion, but it brings the lives of people who are ‘different’ into the world of the reader.

A Quiet Girl || Paro Anand, Toposhi Ghoshal (Illustrator)

The third goal is an educational value addition. We strongly believe that reading should be for pleasure and pleasure only, but we are sadly aware that a lot of the world does not share this view. And because we want our books to sell, we have given in to market pressure and created one exercise for each book. These exercises are carefully chosen to fit in with what children learn at school, so parents and teachers will be happy. But we also wanted to make these as enjoyable as possible for the child. And instead of quizzing kids about what is in the book, we use the story as a starting point for the child to explore the nuances of language and its usage.

So the Hook Books tick many boxes: they are attractive, well-written, fun to read, and are also educational, diverse and carefully crafted. We hope they will be an exciting and groundbreaking new series in the Indian children’s market.

 


It’s not a book, it’s a hook!

The Curious Case of Havaldar Hook – An Interview

 

Havaldar Hook is the endearing mascot of the Hook Books, a new series for early readers for ages 5 and up. To get to know him better, we posed some questions and he very merrily indulged, with honesty and humour.

 

Q: You are a humble havaldar, but you now have a series named after you. How do you feel?

 

A: I’m not ‘a’ havaldar, my name is Havaldar, because my father thought that I would grow up and become a policeman. But I wanted to become a teacher. So I’m very happy that there is a such a fun series in my name. I love books.

 

Q: But, HH, you wear a police uniform. 

 

A: I wear the uniform because it makes my father happy. I believe that it’s all about one’s parents.

 

Q: You have asked a lot of questions at the end of the book. Do you believe all books should be educational? Can’t children just read for fun?

 

A: I’ll tell you a secret. The questions are not for the children. They are for the adults. Heh heh heh.  The children will be happy with the marvellous stories and illustrations. So I thought, let’s give the parents and teachers something to be happy about. Still, I made sure that the questions are not like textbook questions, so children can have fun with them too.

 

Q: If you could give our readers one piece of advice what would it be?

 

A: Never let your parents decide what you should do in life. Also, if your parents give you a silly name, you can change it officially. Sadly, no one told me this, so I’m stuck with the name Havaldar. It makes me very sad, because most children run away when they hear the words: ‘Havaldar is coming!’

 

Q: One slightly personal question:  how did your nose come to match your surname: Hook?

 

A: (preens in pride.) The Raja of Naakpur bestowed the surname Hook on my great-great grandfather in honour of this nose! All the Hooks in history since then have proudly sported this nose. The Raja had just come back from London, otherwise we’d probably have been called the Aakadas.

 

Q: Finally, Havaldarji, what would you like to change your first name to?

 

*Havaldar Hook went silent and thoughtful at this point and we are still waiting for an answer to this question.


Here are the Hook Books

 

Get Your Young Ones Hooked onto these Books

This March, introduce your child to Hawaldar Hook, do fun activities with the Econuts, celebrate your natural hair and more with these new books:

Hook Books


Hey Diddle Diddle
Who’s There?
A Quiet Girl
My Daddy and the Well

 

 

 

It’s not a book, it’s a hook!

The Hook Books are early chapter books for very young readers, aged five and above (for being read to) and six and above (for reading independently). Written by award-winning and most-loved writers for children, and illustrated in exuberant colour by some of India’s best illustrators, these stories are set largely in non-urban settings. Hawaldar Hook is the mascot of the Hook Books.

My Daddy and the Well
As a child in Goa, Daddy used to jump in a well, to water the bananas. Years later, the bananas are gone. But the
pump is there, the well is there, Daddy is there … SPLASH!

Who’s There?
The cats are mewing in panic. Strange voices are calling from the attic. Who’s there??

A Quiet Girl
Puja smiles and smiles, and does not speak. She spends all her time with the foal, Takbak. But Takbak is going to be
sold! What will Pooja do without her best friend?

Hey Diddle Diddle
A horse may be able to jump over the moon. Can a cow do it? Hey diddle diddle.

 

Econuts Value Pack

This series of story-and-activity books features the adventures of Dewy, Woosh, Petals, Pebbles and Waggy, who call themselves the Econuts because they’re simply nuts about ecology and the environment! As the Econuts solve mysteries and find solutions to problems, the reader gets in on the action by solving puzzles and word games.

I Hate my Curly Hair

I tug till my head’s black and blue!
But nothing can tame
This wild, curly mane!

Curly haired girl does everything she can to straighten her stubborn curls-after all, everywhere she looks she sees heroines with smooth, silky hair. Then one day, a bigger bully comes along and everything changes! A humorous tale of self-acceptance. And of hair, lots and lots of glorious curly hair!

 

The Torchbearers

Like any bored eleven-year old with an imagination, Prem Tripathi makes fantastic wishes. And he has been bored a lot since his father dragged him to a monsoon-lashed Mumbai on some mysterious project. Prem wishes it would stop being so hot. He wishes for a genie, a dragon and some superpowers.

The one thing Prem doesn’t wish for is an adventure to bring back the fading gods. A prophecy from the lips of Brahma himself foretells that the gods’ only hope lies in those who will harness the mysterious power of the Vedas. Now, Prem encounters gods in danger of oblivion, demons seeking immortality, and humans caught in the cosmic crossfire. But, along the way, he also discovers who he truly is: a Torchbearer.

Can The Torchbearers save the Gods and humanity from a future devoid of love, hope, and faith?

 

The Girl Who Stole an Elephant

Chaya usually has an answer for everything. But stealing the Queen’s jewels, even for the best of reasons, is not something she can talk her way out of. So she makes her great escape on the back of a gorgeous, stolen elephant and leads her friends on a noisy, fraught, joyous adventure through the jungle where revolution is stirring and leeches lurk. Will stealing these jewels be the beginning or the end of everything for the intrepid gang?

The Best of Tenali

Vijayanagara, ruled by the benevolent King Krishnadevaraya, is home to the wittiest court jester alive, Tenali Raman. Join the charming Tenali, shrewd Rajguru, silly Tingary and Tenali’s pet cat Sundari on their many adventures that include chasing a flying machine that goes berserk, rewriting the Mahabharata and outwitting an evil puppeteer. Packed with stories of wit, wisdom and hilarious antics, this comic-book omnibus with ten rollicking Tenali tales is sure to take you on a journey that is the stuff of legends!

Reasons to Add ‘Timeless Tales from Marwar’ to your Reading List!

Rajasthan’s history is brimming with stories and folklore that span centuries. These are tales that bind Rajasthani folk culture and its history and are passed down generation to generation.

At the forefront of Rajasthani storytelling is Vijaydan Dehta who has also been called the ‘Shakespeare of Rajasthan’. In Timeless Tales from Marwar, Vishes Kothari translates his works from Rajasthani and offers some of the oldest and most popular fables from the Thar Desert region.

Not convinced? Here are reasons you and your child should add this book to your TBR:

Introduce Indian folklore to your child

Timeless Tales from Marwar compiles some of the most popular folklore and stories from the much- celebrated Batan ri Phulwari- ‘Garden of Tales’- a fourteen-volume collection written over a span of nearly fifty years!

The book has a magical narrative style

‘The tale of a tale.
The mischief of mischief.
There were three villages.
Two abandoned, and one,never settled only.
In which lived three potters.
Two fools, and one knew not about making pots only.’

These stories will warm your heart

Detha wrote ‘Because I was so completely unsuccessful with love, I became very talented at writing love stories.’ His stories, like ‘The Leaf and the Pebble’ explore the connections of friendship and love that is familiar to everyone. These stories will leave you feeling hopeful and are sure to warm your heart!

  Gain invaluable life lessons

Vijaydan Detha’s stories bind together human relationships, Indian wildlife, ghosts and the universe at large in an attempt to harness valuable life lessons.

Disguised within interesting and adventurous writings about the stars in ‘Aahedi, the Hunter’ or snakes in ‘Naagan, May Your Line Prosper’, there are lessons and advice about life which any reader can benefit from!


Read well written stories,explore heartwarming and adventurous tales and learn a few life lessons with the Timeless Tales from Marwar!

 

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