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 …

Relationship encounters are usually more inviting if children expect they’re going to be fun, and maybe even funny. Using humor effectively requires paying special attention to the relationship. In order to be humorous, you can’t merely superficially attend to a child, you must be very present to the nuances of the interaction. Humor is often based on a special awareness …

Children sleep more deeply and soundly than grown-ups and do not wake up with the signals from a full bladder; so they wet their beds even though they may be dry by day. Between two and three years, the sleep becomes lighter and the child wakes up and expresses the need to pass urine and does so only on waking …