EpicsClassic retold
Arjuna and the Bird's Eye
The great teacher Drona sets his young princes a simple test. A wooden bird sits high in a tree. Before they shoot, he asks each of them one question. Only one gives the answer he is waiting for.
EpicsClassic retold
Arjuna's Doubt
On the morning of a great battle, the warrior Arjuna looks across the field, sees his own family and teachers on the other side, and puts down his bow. What his friend and charioteer Krishna tells him next became the Bhagavad Gita.
EpicsClassic retold
Bharata and the Sandals
Prince Bharata comes home to find that his mother has sent his beloved brother Rama into exile so that Bharata can be king. He does not want the throne. So he walks into the forest to bring Rama back.
EpicsClassic retold
Ekalavya's Gift
A boy from a forest tribe is turned away by the great teacher Drona. So he makes a clay statue of Drona and teaches himself, until he is a better archer than the princes. Then his teacher asks for a terrible fee.
EpicsClassic retold
Hanuman and the Mountain
Lakshmana lies badly wounded on the battlefield, and only a healing herb from a far-off mountain can save him before sunrise. Hanuman flies north to fetch it. But when he gets there, he can't tell which herb is the right one.
EpicsClassic retold
Karna's Golden Armour
Karna was born wearing golden armour and earrings that kept him safe from any weapon. He also made a promise never to refuse anyone who asked him for a gift at midday. One day, a visitor comes to test that promise.
EpicsClassic retold
Krishna and Sudama
Two boys share everything at school. Years later, one is a king in a golden city and the other is so poor his family often goes hungry. Sudama walks to the palace with a small bundle of flattened rice. Will his old friend even remember him?
EpicsClassic retold
Shabari's Berries
For years an old woman in the forest waits for Rama, sweeping the path and gathering fruit each morning in case today is the day. When he finally comes, she has only berries to give him. What she does with them surprises everyone.
EpicsFable & folk tale
The Squirrel and the Bridge
An army is building a bridge of rocks across the sea. The bears and monkeys carry huge boulders. And one tiny squirrel keeps rolling in the sand and running to the shore. Is that really helping?
EpicsClassic retold
The Yaksha's Questions
Four thirsty brothers drink from a beautiful lake and fall to the ground. When the fifth, Yudhishthira, arrives, a voice tells him he may drink only after answering its questions. His life, and theirs, depends on his answers.
For KidsFable & folk tale
Birbal's Khichdi
A poor man stands all night in an icy lake to win a reward from Emperor Akbar. But the court says a far-away lamp kept him warm, and he gets nothing. Then Birbal starts cooking his khichdi.
For KidsFable & folk tale
Counting the Crows
Emperor Akbar asks his court a question nobody could possibly answer. How many crows live in the city? Birbal answers at once.
MotivationBiography
Dancing Again
At sixteen, Sudha Chandran was a rising young classical dancer. Then an accident on the road took her leg. Everyone assumed her dancing days were over. She did not.
FoundersBiography
From Petrol Pump to Reliance
A schoolteacher's son from a Gujarat fishing village went to work as a clerk in a hot foreign port. He came home with a little money, a rented room and an idea. What he built changed how ordinary Indians thought about owning a share of a company.
FoundersBiography
Seven Friends and Ten Thousand Rupees
In 1981, seven young engineers in Pune started a software company with ten thousand rupees, borrowed from one founder's wife. For years they had no money, few clients and endless government paperwork. This is how Infosys began.
Famous LivesBiography
Sisters and Brothers
In 1893, a young Indian monk with no invitation, no money and no friends in America stood up in a crowded hall in Chicago. His first five words brought thousands of people to their feet.
For KidsFable & folk tale
Tenali Rama and the Thieves
One hot summer night, clever Tenali Rama spots two thieves hiding in his garden. Instead of shouting for help, he has a quiet chat with his wife, loudly enough for the thieves to hear.
For KidsFable & folk tale
The Blue Jackal
A hungry jackal falls into a tub of blue dye and comes out a colour no animal has ever seen. The whole forest bows to him. But can he keep his secret?
SportsBiography
The Boxing Mother
The daughter of poor farmers in the hills of Manipur hid her boxing from her own father. She went on to become a world champion again and again, even after becoming a mother of three.
SportsBiography
The Boy from Khandra
A farmer's son from a village in Haryana was taken to a stadium to lose a little weight. There he picked up a javelin, and years later he threw it to India's first Olympic gold in athletics.
For KidsFable & folk tale
The Clever Rabbit and the Lion
A greedy lion makes the animals of the forest send him one of them every day for his dinner. When it is the little rabbit's turn, he walks very, very slowly, because he has a plan.
FoundersBiography
The Detergent on a Bicycle
A government chemist in Ahmedabad began mixing washing powder in his backyard and selling it door to door from his bicycle, before and after work. He named it after the daughter he had lost.
SportsBiography
The Dhing Express
A rice farmer's daughter from a village in Assam used to play football in the paddy fields. In 2018, she became the first Indian to win a world title on the running track.
Famous LivesBiography
The First Teacher
In 1848, a young woman in Pune walked to school every morning while people on the street threw mud and stones at her. Savitribai Phule kept walking, and opened the door to education for the girls of India.
SportsBiography
The Flying Sikh
A boy who lost almost everything in the Partition of India found his way to an army running track, and then to the fastest races in the world.
MotivationBiography
The Forest Man
As a teenager in Assam, Jadav Payeng found a bare sandbank in the Brahmaputra river, scorched by the sun. He began planting trees on it. Decades later, tigers and elephants walk through his forest.
SportsBiography
The Girl Who Carried Firewood
As a child in Manipur, she lifted a bundle of firewood her older brother could not. Years later, after a painful failure at the Olympics, she lifted India's first medal of the Tokyo Games.
SportsBiography
The Hockey Wizard
A young soldier who practised hockey after duty, by the light of the moon, led India to three Olympic gold medals and became a legend of the game.
HistoryHistorical narrative
The King Who Chose Peace
More than two thousand years ago, the most powerful ruler in India won a terrible war, and then did something almost no conqueror has ever done. He had his sorrow carved into stone for everyone to read.
FoundersBiography
The Man Who Built a Nation of Steel
Jamsetji Tata dreamed of steel mills, power stations and a great institute of science for a country that was not yet free. He did not live to see most of them built. This is the story of how he planted them anyway.
FoundersBiography
The Milkman of India
Verghese Kurien was sent to a small Gujarat town against his wishes and planned to leave as soon as he could. He stayed for the rest of his life, and helped millions of village farmers turn their milk into a livelihood.
KindnessBiography
The Mother of Orphans
Thrown out of her home at twenty with a newborn baby, Sindhutai Sapkal survived by singing for food at railway stations. Then she began to take in other people's abandoned children.
MotivationBiography
The Mountain Man
In a poor village in Bihar, a labourer picked up a hammer and a chisel and began to cut a path through a rocky hill. Everyone laughed. He kept going for twenty-two years.
Life LessonsClassic retold
The Postmaster
A young man from Calcutta is posted to a lonely village post office, where an orphan girl keeps house for him. Tagore's tender story of a bond that means far more to one than to the other.
ReflectionFable & folk tale
The Sage and the Scorpion
An old sage sees a scorpion struggling in the river and reaches in to save it. It stings him. He reaches in again.
ReflectionFable & folk tale
The Shortest Line
Emperor Akbar draws a line on the floor and sets his court a puzzle. Make it shorter, he says, without touching it.
Famous LivesBiography
The Newspaper Boy from Rameswaram
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam delivered newspapers as a boy on a small island town in South India. He grew up to lead India's space and missile programmes, and became its most loved President.
HistoryHistorical narrative
A Handful of Salt
In 1930, Mahatma Gandhi set out on foot to walk 385 kilometres to the sea, to break an unjust law by picking up salt. The whole world watched.
Famous LivesBiography
The Girl from Karnal Who Touched the Stars
As a girl in a small town in Haryana, Kalpana Chawla watched planes and drew spaceships. She became the first woman born in India to go to space.