There was a young boy named Bakri who lived in a lonely village far in the mountains. It was lonely village, yes, but also very quite and peaceful. A swift-flowing stream tumbled down from the mountains and ran through the village. The villagers could hear the rush of its crystal-clear waters as they lay in their beds at night. And …

On April 24, 1895 Captain Joshua Slocum set to sailing. He was the first man to sail alone in a small boat, ‘spray’ around the world. He repaired the old boat and started on his historical mission. This is the story of Captain Joshua who braved the torrents of sea all alone. Barbarous Red Indians had surrounded the ‘spray’. They …

Rrrr…ing. The shrill sound of the call bell filled the house. Nita looked at the front door and frowned. ‘Who could it be so early in the morning? We hardly know anyone here.’ The summer vacation had just started and Nita and her family had recently shifted to this multi-storey building and were still in thee process of settling down. …

One morning Saurabh was eating pudding for his breakfast in the hostel mess. At that time, there were about 20-25 boys present. Saurabh was reading a magazine along with relishing his pudding. All of a sudden, a fly came and squatted on his pudding plate. Seeing this, Saurabh was enraged. Without losing a single minute, he attacked it with his …

Jamadagni was a rishi. He lived a pious life with his wife Renuka. One day Renuka and the rishi were making a shivalinga from clay. Just as they were giving in the finishing touches, Renuka’s concentration was distracted by the sound of hooves. The shadow of the Kshatriya king who rode that way fell on the shivalinga. Rishi Jamadagni who …

I sat with my friend in a well-known coffee shop in a neighboring town of Venice (Italy), the city of lights and water. As we enjoyed our coffee, a man entered and sat at an empty table beside us. He called the waiter and placed his order saying, ‘Two cups of coffee, one of them there on the wall.’ We …

A young crow had fallen from its nest and was fluttering about on the road in danger of being crushed by a car or a tonga, or seized by a cat, when I brought it home. It was in a sorry condition, beak gaping and head drooping, and we did not expect it to live. But my Grandfather and I …

Sheru, the tiger roared into Runu bear’s ear, “Ghurr…aa…aa…” Little Runu bear sprang up with a shock.” “Oh! Keep quiet, Sheru,” Runu bear scolded. Sheru was a good friend but Runu did not like such roaring. But Sheru loved to roar. “Ghuraar…” he would roar at the top of his voice. Sheru’s loud roaring troubled everyone. When Sheru roared, monkeys …

LET’s SHOW our love while we can, while people need us. That is something I learnt from an incident in Bhopal. I saw a little boy daily near the Hanuman temple, always in a white tee and black pants, with a small Hanuman pendant around his neck. He sat with a basket of fresh floral garlands. Be it at six …

Debunking earlier theories that our brains go into a steady decline as we age, researchers have found that the human brain works slower in old age but only because it has stored more information over time. “If you think linguistic skill involves something like being able to choose one word given another, younger adults seem to do better in this …