Showing results by narrator "Asif Ali Beg" in All Categories

A short story by Leo Tolstoy first published in 1885 as part of the collection What Men Live By, and Other Tales. The story takes the form of a parable, and it concerns a king who wants to find the answers to what he considers the three most important questions in life...

A fantastic dramatized version of one of the most celebrated classics of all times. Shere Khan, a man eating tiger, is out on one of his hunting escapades, when Mowgli, a man's cub, manages to escape and ends up with a wolf family. The family including the Father Wolf, Mother Wolf, and their cubs, go on to take care of this young baby. When Mowgli grows up, he befriends Baloo, the sleepy bear, and Bagheera, the black panther, who help him at every turn.

'The Rain' Collection of short stories centres on the destructive and regenerative force of rain - physically, emotionally, psychologically and as a metaphor for life. From human cruelty to human determination, stories set in several locations, each showcasing the universality of anger, loss...

On Mahashivratri, when the moon casts a crimson glow and bats scurry across the night sky, the Vetaals appear from the shadows to take revenge against an ancient custom led by a sadistic demigod. The only one who stands between them and the future of humankind is Vikramaditya, the king of Avantika. But to battle against these dark forces, he needs an ally. An ally who whispers with blood between his teeth, the one who speaks in riddles—the original Veetal. Will Vikramaditya be able to convince the Veetal to help him defeat this unbeatable enemy?

The Last Courtesan was his mother's story. Nautch Boy tells his own. A sweet-faced, quiet boy dressed in matching pink shorts and a top poses demurely for a photograph in a kotha, holding a flower vase with plastic white daisies in it. Powdered, scented women around him sparkle and pirouette...

Mohanaswamy has just lost his long-time partner, Karthik, to a woman. Even as he scrutinizes himself, the choices he's made, the friends and lovers he's gained and lost, Mohanaswamy dreams of living a simple, dignified life. A life that would allow him to leave, even forget, the humiliation and fears of adolescence, the slurs his mind still carries around–gandu sule, hennu huli–and the despair that made him crave to conform.

An 1865 short story by Mark Twain. It was his first great success as a writer and brought him national attention. In it, the narrator retells a story he heard from a bartender, Simon Wheeler, at the Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, about the gambler Jim Smiley. The narrator describes him...

Razia Sultan, the dynamic ruler of Dihli, is enraged. Someone is sending her pesky presents—girly dresses and soppy poems on sultanas. What's worse, they come with notes challenging her right to rule, as a woman. Who can help the sultan solve this mystery?

'The Signal-Man' is a story by Charles Dickens. The story begins with the narrator calling 'Halloa! Below there!' into a railway cutting. The signalman standing on the railway below does not look up, as the narrator expects, but rather turns about and stares into the railway tunnel that is his...

A short story by the American author Washington Irving first published in 1819. It follows a Dutch-American villager in colonial America named Rip Van Winkle who falls asleep in the Catskill Mountains and wakes up 20 years later, having missed the American Revolution...

Petu Pumpkin is always eating. When he starts emptying his friends' tiffin boxes, they form a secret society to save their lunches. But the magic potion is a flop and the super glue is a disaster ...

An engineer, Victor Hatherley, attends Dr Watson's surgery after his thumb is chopped off, and recounts his tale to Watson and Holmes. Hatherley had been hired for 50 guineas to repair a machine he was told compressed Fuller's earth into bricks. Hatherley was told to keep the job confidential...

A 'Blue Carbuncle' is stolen from a hotel suite, and a former felon is soon arrested. However, an acquaintance of Holmes discovers the carbuncle in the throat of a Christmas goose. Holmes traces the owner of the goose, but soon determines that he was not the thief by offering him a replacement...