How many names does Arjuna have?
Why was Yama cursed?
What lesson did a little mongoose teach Yudhisthira?
The Kurukshetra war, fought between the Kauravas and the Pandavas and which forced even the gods to take sides, may be well known, but there are innumerable stories set before, after and during the war that lend the Mahabharata its many varied shades and are largely unheard of. Award-winning author Sudha Murty reintroduces the fascinating world of India’s greatest epic through the extraordinary tales in this collection, each of which is sure to fill you with a sense of wonder and bewilderment.
It all began with the fall of a meteorite and the crater it made. In its centre was a red notebook, sticking out of the ground—the first (or was it really the last?) of Professor Shonku’s diaries.
Professor Trilokeshwar Shonku, eccentric genius and scientist, disappeared without a trace after he shot off into space in a rocket from his backyard in Giridih, accompanied by his loyal but not-too-intelligent servant Prahlad, his cat Newton, and Bidhushekhar, his robot with an attitude.
What has become of the professor? Has he decided to stay on in Mars, his original destination? Or has he found his way to some other planet and is living there with strange companions? His last diary tells an incredible story . . . Other diaries unearthed from his abandoned laboratory reveal stranger and even more exciting adventures involving a ferocious sadhu, a revengeful mummy and a mad scientist in Norway who turns famous men into six-inch statues.
Exciting, imaginative and funny, the stories in this collection capture the sheer magic of Ray’s lucid language, elegant style, graphic descriptions and absurd humour. The indomitable Professor Shonku has returned, to win himself over a whole new band of followers!
A hilarious glimpse of the complex lives of insects These fourteen scintillating stories are marked by Ranjit Lal’s usual combination of meticulous research, rollicking storytelling and fascinating characters. Nimbu, the caterpillar, resolves to go on a diet inspired by the stick insect. Cheeni Chor, the ant, discovers a refrigerator stuffed with goodies and is driven to rebellion. Ladoo Gulabjamun, one of the resident cockroaches of the famous Golden Thali Restaurant, decides to take on the management to impress his ladylove. You will also meet the body-building cricket, the dung beetles who like to party and a host of other insects who reveal their inner lives as never before and are true to both the insect and human world. Lal’s mastery of the world of birds and beasts, as captured in Crow Chronicles and The Life and Times of Altu Faltu, also extends to the world of insects, and this is perhaps his most enchanting and comical book to date. Rahul Dutta’s unusual and striking illustrations capture the magic of worlds Lal reveals.
The popular classic in which good vanquishes evil, now in a pocket-friendly version for children
The Ramayana is one of the best-known epics in the PBI – World-the tale of Rama, the prince of Ayodhya, who exiles himself to the forest for fourteen years to honour his father’s word. In the forest, Rama, his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana meet new friends and unusual foes, and each day brings new adventures. But Ravana of Lanka, the king of demons, ruins it all by abducting Sita. To rescue her, Rama enlists the help of Hanuman and his monkey army. In the final battle many heroes die and new ones are born.In this fast-moving version for children, the ancient tale takes on new life. The traditional ingredients are all there-drama and excitement, gods and princes, love and war, infinite stories within stories, monkeys who cross oceans and carry mountains, shape-changing demons and bizarre monsters-but described with freshness and vitality by Bulbul Sharma. This contemporary retelling, which answers questions and provides explanations, is the perfect first Ramayana for everyone.
I’m stuck between poop and school, and I don’t know what to do. Dadu, this is all for you.’
Anu and his grandfather are happiest together, birdwatching in the forest near their home in Seattle, waiting for the barred owl to show up. One day Dadu suddenly dies in the woods, but his see-through spirit stays with Anu. He is desperate to get his grandfather back from the gods. With his best friend Unger, the daring Izzy Mumu next door and help from the Internet, Anu sets out to turn holy enough to perform great wonders. He visits a graveyard, shaves his head like a sadhu, lives on offerings of sandwiches and water, and rolls all the way to school-through rain and poop-like Ludkan Baba. In the end, the only hope he has left is Karnak, the awesome magician at the Mystery Museum on Divine Island . . .
What happens when Anu finally finds himself face-to-face with Karnak-and a truth that he cannot escape? Find out in this warm and funny story about how a boy deals with being foreign, being bald and being separated from someone he loves like crazy.
Eight schoolgirls from the hills on a tour of Agra, drive into Delhi the day Indira Gandhi is assassinated. They run into a violent, crazed mob that pulls their jovial old driver Kartar Singh out and slays him brutally. In a blazing city lashed by violence, the girls flee to seek refuge. They find it in an elegant and apparently empty house but is it safe? Its gallery of forbidding masks and medieval weapons is alarming enough, but worse, it is a house marked by the vicious mob because it belongs to a rich Sikh family with two children. In an adventure gone dreadfully wrong, all that the girls can think of is going home, but the vengeful enemy is right at the door! Led by sixteen-year-old Puja, a masterful archer but with her own personal demons to fight, the girls have to tackle one threat after another, including a chicken thief in their midst. Mustering their wisdom, stealth, cunning and courage, they valiantly keep their conscienceless attackers at bay until they are finally plunged into a quandary where there is only hair’s breadth between killing and being killed. A gripping and powerful story, The Battle for No. 19 highlights the moral dilemmas of young people in today’s world where violence erupts round every corner, and the line between right and wrong runs dangerously thin.
Hop on to a super fragilistic story-tour that will take you far and wide to places you have never been and people you have never seen. Meet Chicken Mama, the spiky-haired medicine woman who can move Time backwards; Mokel-embe-embe, the world’s last dinosaur, about to be captured by British explorers; Spooky95768939123, the ghost in danger of becoming extinct; and Manto the Degree Master, equally expert at calligraphy and ‘chumpy’. Salute freedom fighter Shankarrao and his defiant chappal-throwing; and tag along with old Das Babu to Bombay’s Hanging Gardens, Arabia and the yucky-mucky footpath; and find out if Asha and Dhiren are ever able to fool the very clever Chachaji. There’s never a dull moment in this selection of unusual stories. From the laughable antics of Sammy the penguin to the secret of the snake-stone in the Himalayan meadows to Epsilon the biologist’s Amazonian hunt for the rare How-D’You-Do Bird-each story in this exciting collection introduces you to real characters you will never forget and imaginary ones you will want desperately to meet.
The forests of India are not only home to a wide variety of animals and birds but also teem with committed conservationists, naturalists and nature lovers. After spending many years with wildlife, these men and women bring us fascinating stories of their experiences and encounters.
Cliff Rice, an animal explorer, camps for two years in the mountains of Kerala and befriends the Nilgiri tahr with fistfuls of salt. Ralph Morris, one of the first British coffee planters in the Biligirirangan Hills of Karnataka, goes on a ‘tiger beat’ and ends up chasing a pair of tigers towards his daughter, who is armed only with pebbles to defend herself. Sally Walker comes to India to learn yoga and Sanskrit but spends years caring for baby chimpanzees and tiger cubs in zoos instead. Rom Whitaker, a reptile conservationist, sets off on an international hunt for giant crocodiles that takes him from Orissa to Egypt, and Manish Chandi tells a fascinating tale about Meroe—the rumbling Nicobar island—where he studied sea turtles and other wildlife.
Zai Whitaker, herself a nature writer and author of well-loved children’s books, brings together in this collection the writings of eminent wildlife experts such as Bittu Sahgal, Ian Lockwood, Ramachandra Guha and many others. Filled with anecdotes that are at once incredible and informative, The Rumbling Island is an entertaining account of India’s most precious natural asset—our forests.
‘I was then about seven or eight. I had no useful role to play in this PBI – World; and that old palki, too, had been dismissed from all forms of useful employment . . .’
Hidden inside an ancient palanquin on a hot, lonely afternoon, a young boy sets off on an imaginary adventure. He encounters gangs of bandits, arrives at palaces where kings bathe in sandalwood-scented water, and the hunter accompanying him gets rid of the tiger lurking in the forest with a bang! of his gun. The boy, gifted with a vivid imagination and a sensitive mind, grew up to become one of PBI – India’s greatest poets and thinkers.
In Boyhood Days Rabindranath Tagore recounts his growing up years with gentle wit and humour. He describes life in nineteenth-century Kolkata when the only light in the evening came from castor-oil lamps; when hackney carriages raced through the city’s streets and women travelled in palanquins to the Ganga for their bath. He writes about his early love for music and poetry, the myriad influences that shaped his thinking and about the other members of his large, gifted family. Boyhood Days brings to life an era long past and traces the journey of an icon from childhood to the time he takes his first steps in the PBI – World of literature.
Ashoka the Great, the ruler of ancient India’s largest kingdom, took the path of peace, tolerance, non-violence and compassion after a fierce battle in Kalinga. He now addressed his subjects as a father would his children, and erected pillars that spread his thoughts throughout the land in the people’s own language. He put their welfare above all else and worked towards that for the rest of his life. One of the most well-known symbols from India’s history, the Ashoka chakra, now adorns India’s national flag, and the lion capital from his pillars is our national emblem. In this lively, engrossing account of Ashoka’s life and the times, Subhadra Sen Gupta deftly brings him alive again from behind the swirling mists of time.
