The Stories We Tell

Hello hello lovely earthlings, I don’t know how long it’s been since I shared some stories but I decided that enough is enough and that it is time to get out of my hiatus :-) so here we are with a 9 episode series on the beautiful festival of the Navaratras (nine nights) and the nine forms of the Supreme mother Goddess - Durga / Shakti. As we welcome Ma (Mother) into our homes, we will aim to understand the significance of not simply worshipping the divine but recognising that we ARE divinity ourselves and all that we seek is truly within. Alright alright, I am sensing a lot of enlightenment which is prompting me to say deeply spiritual and existential things for which I make no apologies :-))) I hope you enjoy this series - I will drop a new episode each day so I look forward to your love. Stay blessed and joyful always!! Much love, see you soon!! ❤️

The Elephant’s child: Hello hello my lovely people! How are you today? I was about to ‘Hope you’re well’ you and then realised that it’s the last thing you want to hear if you’re not that well. So all i just want to say that I’m so happy if you’re well but equally I feel you if you’re not that well and that it’s ok to feel like that. Be kind to yourself please - no one is here to judge so just please take some time out to live yourself, unwind and perhaps listen to a few stories because stories can heal. That’s what my dear friend Sonia keeps reminding me of and I am so grateful to her for her love and encouragement and grace and so I dedicate this episode to her today as she feels poorly today. I hope that this simple, light as air story by the inimitable Rudyard Kipling (written in 1902 starting off its life as bedtime stories told to his little girl Josephine ‘just so’) makes you smile just like your words make everyone who read them, fill up with joy and emotion. Get well soon my friend! To all my little friends and their Mums and Dads who are listening to this, thank you for your support and for listening always. Stay healthy, stay safe, read a lot, listen to music and stories and don’t forget to be fully, freely and wholly yourselves. All my love, M xx

Hello hello lovely people! I hope you are all well and keeping warm if you, like me, are in the U.K because it is freezing at the moment!! Nothing helps me feel better than reading a book so I thought I would continue with the Amar Chitra Katha series and give you a glimpse of the beloved publication we grew up reading! Today’s story is about a valiant, just and honourable young prince who went on to become an extraordinary powerful and successful king whose empire extended beyond the Hindu Kush mountains. I hope you enjoy hearing this story and I look forward to sharing more from the ACK stables!! In the meantime, stay safe, keep smiling, read and listen to all the things that make you joyful and take care of yourselves! Much love and moonshine, Me xx

Hello earthlings!!! How are we all? I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy happy new year and I hope that 2022 brings you good health, abundance (of all the good things) and sees you doing all the things you didn’t, couldn’t or weren’t able to do. I honestly cannot believe that this is my first episode after May 2021 - in many ways, 2021 felt so much more difficult for so many more reasons and motivation was at an all time low. I hope to remedy all that and publish more regularly! For now though, a slice of comfort and of my childhood for those times when you most need it 🤗 This episode is dedicated to one of my most favourite boys, Roy Ganguly who is currently poorly with what else (eye roll🙄) and needs loads of TLC and many stories!! I hope you all enjoy it especially if you’re unwell or just feeling meh and I certainly hope Raman, the smart and funny court jester in King Krishnadevaraya’s kingdom of Vijayanagar (south India) from many moons back, brings a little bit of sunshine to your day with his wit and quick thinking! Stay well, stay joyful and keep reading my lovely people! Toodles!! 🤗🤗❤️❤️

When the heart is heavy and I am lost, I head for the love and comfort of the only place I know outside of my Mama’s welcoming arms - books. They hug me in their warmth and offer me solace and when it’s a book written by my all time favourite other Bond, Ruskin Bond, it’s all the more special. As I think and pray for my country, reading his words allows me to feel closer to my homeland, even when I’m thousands of miles away. Wishing that all this ends soon and that there is light at the end of the tunnel for humanity as a whole. Praying for respite, healing and recovery for my country and its lovely people. I hope you enjoy hearing this story - my apologies for more than a few slip ups while reading, I was too exhausted to retake those bits and have just kept the unedited version. Stay safe everyone, for my peeps in India. stay home if you don’t need to absolutely head out, mask up and please practise social distancing. Keep reading and keep staying positive - we will get over this together ❤️❤️🙏🙏🌈🌈

Hello lovely folks!! Hope you’ve been well. There seems to be light at the end of the COVID tunnel it appears, hallelujah! 🙏🙏🙏😍😍🌺🌺 Thank you Lord! Today we are going to pay tribute to the incredibly talented Sylvia Plath who has given the world of literature some spectacular gems. It is so tragic that she passed on so young but today I want to remember her with fondness and heaps of joy as I re-read this most wonderful story about fitting in, that is applicable to both children and adults alike, as a dedication to one of Ani’s besties and one of my favourite girls who has just turned 10 today. Happy birthday Avni, I wish you joy, love, lots of books, cake and I hope for all you kids that you do what’s right for you and what makes you happy - don’t try to conform to either what others do or to what you think others expect from you! Stay safe, stay sane, keep reading and remember it really doesn’t matter :-) ❤️❤️🙏🙏🌺🌺🌺🌞🌞🧘🏻‍♀️🏭📚📚📚

Happy World Book Day lovely earthlings! There’s so much I want to say on this hallowed day but for now all I will say is stay calm and read on, in this case, listen on! I hope you find magic in places you least expect and on that note, here are some stories of magical mythology from across the world. The first two episodes from Anita Nair’s brilliantly written and compiled Magical Indian myths ❤️❤️⚡️⚡️ and the first episode has a mystery guest from the USA 😄😄 I hope you enjoy it! Stay safe, stay healthy, make magical memories and carry on reading!! #worldbookday2021 #everydayisbookday #storytelling #worldmythology #magicalindianmyths #booksgivemelife

Helllo lovely folks and happy Thank-God-it’s-not-Monday-and-just-two-days-from-being-Friday :-))) 💥🤣🤣💪🏼💪🏼👍🏼👍🏼 Hope you are keeping your spirits up and finding things that spark joy and love in your hearts to keep you going during this time that seems to be an extension of another (lockdown) time except with no real clarity :-) But hey ho, we plough on and think of happy things and today’s definitely a day to rejoice as it’s the 9th birthday of a dear friend’s daughter who is my daughter’s namesake and one of my favourite little people in this world 💕💕💕😍😍 So naturally, this story is dedicated to you darling Anika. Happy birthday sweetheart - I wish you magic, love, happiness, adventure and heaps of stardust. Dream big and conquer the world !!! And remember to always believe in yourself and be full of inner confidence! Hope you and all the little and big people listening to this story will enjoy it and take some amazing life lessons from the collection of Mr. Bond’s many treasures 🤗🤗🤗💕💕🎂🎂😍😍 Stay safe all, keep reading and treasure all the happiness you can find 👍🏼🙏💪🏼💜 #birthdaydedication #ruskinbond #lifelessons #confidence #selfbelief #storiesforfamilies

"I am just a child who has never grown up. I still keep asking these 'how' and 'why' questions. Occasionally, I find an answer." Simple yet profound words from a man who refused to give up and whose relentless thirst for knowledge led to some great answers. Stephen Hawking, one of the most beloved scientists in the world was born on 8th January 1942 and lived on till the age of 76 (defying death even as he was diagnosed with ALS at only 21 and given just a couple of years to live!) discovering amazing things and helping find answers to questions that had long baffled scientists. Listen on to hear his story, written in 2009, so still referring to him in the present tense. Symbolic almost as he and his work live on in everyone’s hearts and minds. I hope you enjoy it! Until we meet again, stay safe, stay curious and keep on reading ! Toodles 🙏💕💕📚📚📚

Hello dahlings!!! For those of that know me, you know how much I absolutely LOVE telling stories but when it’s on the last day of a year that has been so spectacularly surreal and indescribable, you know that you can’t bid it farewell and wait to bring in 2021, with just any book. And so it had to be The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse for its deeply endearing profundity and simple yet lasting life lessons. Thank you to the wonderful Mr Mackesy for the gift of his words, thoughts and magical illustrations. I hope I’ve been able to do even a little justice to them through this narration.
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Happy new year peeps! Here’s wishing us joy, hope, good health, non Zoom meetings with family, friends and colleagues, the ability to look for and find silver linings, the courage to ask for help when we need it and the knowledge that we will all get where we need to in the end. Thank you to each one of you for the love you’ve showered on what started off simply as a means to record and consolidate memories. I am so deeply grateful to everyone of you that takes the time to hear the accents, giggles, commentary and exchange of ideas that take place when I read to and with my now 10 year old. Thank you 🙏🙏🙏🙏🎉🎉🎉🎉💕💕 My heart is full! Stay safe, stay happy, keep reading, listening to and telling your own stories. Cheers to you all and to 2021 🌟🌟🌟🌟🍾🍾🍾🍾
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#nye2020 #abookadaykeepsanxietyaway #booksforall #lifelessons #keepreading #bekindtoyourself

Two sleeps to go oh wise earthlings! And since I’m being ridiculously lazy, it stands to reason that I just upload a story I recorded the day before our wonderful kids were going back to school after a long summer of spring and summer term home schooling, here in the U.K. I know that so many students are still learning online all over the world and I hope you can all go back to meeting your incredible teachers and fabulous friends in school, very very soon in the new year. In the meantime, keep reading and do show some love to the exceptional Neil Gaiman in this lovely little story, Cinnamon. It's a story he wrote about 20 years ago, inspired by a Lisa Snellings carousel sculpture of a girl called Cinnamon, with pearlescent eyes, riding on a Tiger. Neil Gaiman is English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, nonfiction, audio theatre, and films. His works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book. He has won numerous awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards, as well as the Newbery and Carnegie medals. He is the first author to win both the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the same work, The Graveyard Book (2008). Until we meet again, sleep tight, stay safe, read loads and don’t let COVID get ahead :-) much love, toodles! 🤗🤗💥💥💪🏻🙏🏼

Hola, Namaste, greetings lovely folks! Hope you’re well and are looking forward to bid farewell to this, what shall we call it, interesting year?! :-)) Just 3 more sleeps and we will enter 2021! A year, I know, that will hold hope, good health, joy and abundance for us all. So as this year draws to a close, I would like to bring it to a close with some of my favourite authors and stories. Those of you that know me will know therefore that this means stories from my all time favourite ever, the inimitable Ruskin Bond. These are all stories I have recorded a while back but not had a chance to upload. Nonetheless, their appeal is timeless and I hope that you will enjoy and savour them as much as Ani and I do. Stay safe peeps, stay well, happy and do please show some love to your books and this podcast - just 4000 more plays to make bring it to 10,000 listens 🤗🤗🤗🙏🙏🙏🙏💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼💥💥🥂🥂🥂🗝🗝📚📚📚📚💕💕

Hello lovely earthlings! It’s Christmas Eve so how can one have anything other than this classic poem by Clement Clark Moore. It’s a strange Christmas I know. Some of us may be lucky enough to be with our loved ones, others not. But the most important thing is that we are all safe and healthy and have the love and warmth of the ones in our heart. I wish us all the ability to find joy in the simple things, warmth in our hearts and kindness to share and give in spades. Have a beautiful evening and see you all tomorrow! Enjoy your holidays, good tidings all cx 🎄🎄💕💕🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎉🎉🎉🎉 #twasthenightbeforechristmas #ccm #poems #festiveholidays #staysafe

Hello my lovely earthlings!! As promised, this week is all about Christmas tales so here goes a short and sweet story about the importance of being kind and respectful and knowing that there is no bigger wealth than those values 🙏🙏🤗🤗🤗🔆🔆🎁🗝🗝🔑🔑💰💰💰 Not long to go how, enjoy your festive break and remember to always have gratitude in your heart and a smile on your face for others 🔑🔑🔑🙏🙏🙏🤗🤗 Stay safe, stay happy, keep reading and enjoy this time with family and loved ones 💕💕💕🎉🎉🎉🎄🎄🎄 #tistalwaystheseasontogive #lovebooks #christmastories #festiveholidays #kidstories

Hello folksy folks who are mostly home because......no I’m not going to say the awful virus’ name again 🙄🙄 I hope you’re all well and kids, I hope you’re enjoying your holidays because who knows what’s going to happen ahead?! Ok ok I’m kidding 😍😍🤣🤣🎉🎉🎄🎄 Little Miss A asked me why Boxing Day has been given the name it has. Is it because people boxed each other on the day? Or did they wear boxer shorts the day after Christmas? Listen to this episode to know more! Stay safe, stay home, keep reading and please do give heaps of love to this podcast that loves to bring you all kinds of stories that fill your heart with a little mirth, a little fun, a little tear and a whole lot of happiness and love. 😍😍💪🏼💪🏼🙏🙏🙏 oh and by the way, I have not one but two guests today from different parts of the world so do enjoy their varied accents and let me know what you think :-) #happyholidays #keepreading #loveofbooks #itsbeginningtolookalotlikechristmas #joytotheworld

Not long for Christmas now!! So as promised, in the lead up to the big day, I’m going to be sharing stories that are centred on or around the theme of Christmas, it’s spirit and this time of year. This story is one that is told by the master story writer, Hans Christian Andersen so naturally you can expect that there may not always be happy ending in the traditional sense of the term. It is still a beautiful tale of gratitude, happiness and eventually hope. Merry Christmas in advance! Stay safe, stay home and read lots of books as you enjoy the warmth indoors and the love of books and your families 🤗🤗🤗💕💕🎄🎄🎄🎉🎉🎼🎼 #wintertales #hanschristianandersen #christmas #storiesforkids #lovereading

Hello folks !!! Hope you’re well and have had a fabulous weekend. How are you all feeling as the festive season is fast approaching? Are you feeling overwhelmed with everything around you, filled with a sense of uncertainty, fear, frustration and envy or is your heart full with contentment, joy and gratitude, in the main? I must confess that it’s not been easy for me on many levels but the key grounders have been the feelings of Acceptance, acknowledgment and gratitude. This story of the two wolves has been on I’ve read and re-read many times over. I’ve drawn inspiration from it personally and used it to give strength to my now 10 year old and many friends too. This version is my take on this timeless tale. I hope you too will find something to take away that will fill you with the strength, resilience and joy that you are seeking today. Have a beautiful Sunday. Stay safe, stay happy and keep reading 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🎁🎁🎁🎁📘📘📚📚📚📚 #cherokeetale #lifelessons #readmore #thewolfandthelion #acceptance #lookinside

Is there anyone in the world who hasn’t heard of Enid Blyton? If you haven’t, you’ve definitely been living under a very large rock (😬😬😂😂🪨🪨🪨🪨) but if you have, you will most certainly agree that her writing will have influenced you in some way or the other, whether it is a love of scones and strawberries and cream (even without knowing what a scone was, growing up in India at that time 😬) or a love of some sort of adventure entailing a curious dog among other things :-) Lately I’ve found myself sharing with you all, memories of the books I read many moons back. The Secret Seven series by Enid Blyton is one such vivid set of memories and today’s episode, The Secret Seven Adventure, albeit very long, is a labour of love, recorded a while back for the 10th birthday of a special little girl but only uploaded today. Happy 10th Sara, I hope you enjoy it and that it’s worth the wait for you. For all other kids and the parents belonging to them, I hope you will enjoy this too and it brings a smile to your face. By golly, have a wonderful evening all! Stay safe, stay warm and keep on reading, toodles! 🌟🌟🙏🏼🙏🏼💫💫📚📚📚📚

Hello my lovely people of this world, hope you’re well! Hope you’ve been reading books or listening to books or making someone listen to books or all of the above, given that the weather leaves little option to do much else and also because what can be more fun than curling up with a book and a hot beverage 😍😍😍😍💯💯💯 Even more heartwarming is the experience of sitting with a book that is like a one way ticket to your childhood. This book, for me, is one of them. I won it as a ‘General Proficiency’ award (yes we had those weird and wonderful things when we were growing up 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼🌞🌞🤗🤗💥💥👏🏼👏🏼💪🏻💪🏻❣️) when I was in Grade 4 and I still remember how proud and happy it made me. I read the book over and over again while I was growing up and the. Of course forgot all about it until my Mum brought it with me during one of her visits to the U.K. and handed it over to me after my daughter was born. Even then, I never thought to read it much until recently and Anikka has loved it so much that we are now reading a couple of stories every night. It’s a simple book - a loving Dad who wants to make his often poorly child feel better so retells her stories of his own childhood. The translation isn’t great but the premise is so simple and it’s reassuring for kids to know that their parents were children too at one time and did all the things they now ask their wonderful kids not to :-) I hope you enjoy these little stories as much as I’ve loved reading them. Stay safe, keep reading, take care and don’t forget to be grateful for all the small things 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼❣️❣️❣️🥰🥰🥰🥰🎼🎼🎼📚📚📚📙📙📙

Hello lovely people! Hope you’re well and making the best of the time we live in by reading, writing, exercising, volunteering, cooking, watching movies, making movies even and any such thing that sparks joy in your life 🤗🤗 A lot of you have messaged me and sent me heaps of good feedback on the Indian stories I had shared - both Panchatantra and Akbar Birbal. Thank you so much for your encouragement, it means the world to me! I was putting off reading more such stories when one of my favourite little people in the world, young Master Roy Ganguli, asked me for some Akbar Birbal and ‘similar stuff’ for his birthday. I can never say no to a birthday dedication especially for someone I’m so fond of so this episode has a couple of old Akbar Birbal stories and a brand new entry by way of The Tales of Tenali Rama! Tenali Rama was an Indian poet, scholar, thinker and a special advisor in the court of Krishnadevaraya who ruled Andhra Pradesh from C.E. 1509 to 1529. Tenali Rama was renowned for his folk tales, which like Birbal were witty and clever. So Roy, I hope you enjoy them and to all my lovely audience, I hope the fun conversations between my partner in crime and me, make you laugh too - we couldn’t get over the word ‘thinker’ and kept guffawing 😂😂😂😁😁😁:-) Stay safe, stay happy and keep reading ! 💕💕🤗🤗📚📚🌍🌍 More Tenali Rama stories to follow soon x

Hello lovely jubblies! Hope you’re all having a fabulous weekend full of fabulous things to do and fabulous food with fabulous company in the absence of other fabulous things to do 😂😂 It’s only fair then that today’s story is a fabulous one! 👊🏼👊🏼😃😃 Yes, at the request of a lovely young lady, Aria Kumar Raina, I give you - (drum roll please!), Hotel Flamingo - Fabulous Feast! This is Alex Milway’s latest book (written in lockdown no less so all the more special!) in the Hotel Flamingo series and is full of wonderful animals telling stories of overcoming fears, believing in ourselves and thinking out of the box. Thank you Aria for the recommendation - we loved reading it and I thoroughly enjoyed doing different accents, knowing full well I got many of them wrong and apologising to anyone who I might’ve offended in the process because it was all in good fun 😂😂🙏🙏🤗 Hope you enjoy the book, stay safe, stay happy and don’t ever take yourself too seriously 💕💕🌈🌈📚📚📚👊🏼👊🏼🤗🤗

Hello, Hola, Namaste, Salutations oh wonderful people! Hope you’re well and are getting ready to embrace Autumn 🍂🍂🍁🍁 The Corona virus is still dominating the news and our lives but how lucky we are to have roofs over our heads, hot food on our tables, good health on our side and family and friends we love around us. If that want enough, we have books 📕📕📚📚📚📙📙💕💕💕💕 And inevitably, the greatest stories and books are written at times of trouble, pain, heartbreak or ill health. Astrid Lindgren created these stories for her daughter Karin who asked her for a get-well soon story when she was off school :-) Karin named this fiesty little girl Pippi who is 9 years old and lives all by herself with a horse, a monkey, a suitcase full of gold and no grown ups to tell her what to do and she is stronger than anyone else you will ever know !!💕💕 The first book ‘Pippi Longstocking’ was published in 1945 followed by ‘Pippi goes on board’ and ‘Pippi in the South Seas. I’m going to read ‘The Best of Pippi Longstocking’, an 11 chapter book which has stories from all the books above and start off reading a couple of chapters from the first book. If you haven’t read Pippi before, I just know you’ll love her free spirit, sense of humour and incredible fearlessness. If you already know her, you’ll just find yourself admiring and adoring her a teeny weeny bit more 💕💕💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼💥💥 Enjoy the stories and let me know what you think !! Stay safe, stay happy and keep reading!! 💕💕📚📚🍁🍂🌈 toodles xx

Hello lovely peepuls, hope you’re well! We’ve been incredibly lucky to have been blessed with the last shards of summer here in the UK before autumn well and truly sets in. What a difference it makes isn’t it? Everything seems betterer and worthwhiler :-) The leaves aren’t yet quite leaving but the sun is still really shining and it’s all kind of wonderment - sounds familiar? Why of course, it’s because I’m speaking Seussan! This has got be one of my favouritest books by the amazing and totally inimitable Dr Seuss and I so hope you’ll enjoy listening whether you’re a little or a big, whether you’re starting a new school year, an adventure, job or project - I hope inspires you no matter what you don 🥰🥰😍😍👑👑🌈🌈🎹🎹🎼🎼🌈🌈 I wish you more smiles in your happiness and less frowns in your worries. Keep smiling, stay safe and don’t take your foot off the pedal yet - we aren’t yet done with the damn coronovirus. Read more and fight less 💪🏼💪🏼👑👑👑📚📚📚📚🧿💈🏖🎤🎤🎬🎪⚡️🥰

Hola peeps!!! Hope you’re well! It’s been a month since I last posted an episode - apologies for the radio silence but life has been travelling at full speed and not always in the right direction :-))) I was all set to make a grand re-entry and had written a lovely, long and detailed blurb on what you could expect from this episode today but because the big bad cyber world decided to play some very unwarranted mischief, I’ve lost all that I had written :-( 😱😱🙄🙄🦁🤬🤬
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I will therefore keep it brief and let you know that today is all about Sci-fi at the request of a dear friend’s son, Ryan Ganguli who specifically asked for this genre, so I give you two very different stories - the first, is Day of the Builders by Kristine Ong Muslim written in 2016, which is less sci-fi and more futuristic with a brilliant, provocative end while the second is a classic by Isaac Asimov written in 1951 (would you believe it) and set in 2155 with a remarkable vision of what would be in the future. Ryan, I hope you like them and I hope that all listening, enjoy both ! Here’s to more of where these came from - toodles! 🙏🙏🙏🙏💥💥💥💪🏼💪🏼🕸🕸🕷🕷🧟‍♀️👁👁👀🦻🏻✍🏼✍🏼
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#scifi #futuristic #vision #apocalyptic #annihilation #lovebooks

Hello hello lovely people!! Hope you are all doing wonderfully well and enjoying the summer holidays! It’s been a while since I uploaded a story so I decided today is as good a day as any other to do this :-) and what better to get back to it than with a story I heard and read a hundred times as a child and that I’m certain many of you big and small peoples would have enjoyed too. It’s Hansel and Gretel I’m talking about and I’ve shared the unabridged version here. The story was originally written in 1812 but the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm made many changes to it, right through to 1857, so it’s the latter that is what you’ll be hearing. I must confess that it’s the first time I’m reading this version myself! There are many stereotypes in here which may not surprise you at all. I hope though that you’ll enjoy it nonetheless with the belief that ultimately good will always prevail even if it takes a long time to do it :-)) I hope you have a fabulous evening day and wish you happiness always. Stay safe, take care and keep reading 😍😍📚📚📚 Until we meet again, it’s toodles from me xx

Hello my lovely people. As I mentioned in my episode uploaded just before this one featuring the very large, the very strong and the very lazy lion Shanumugam, I’ve been on a trip down memory lane today, going through the hundreds of recordings on my phone and happened to stumble upon these two absolutely inspiring and heartwarming stories that form part of the Little People Big Dreams series. This series was created by the fantastic Isabel Sánchez Vegara to celebrate little girls with dreams who became women with great vision. From designers and artists to scientists, all of the people in this revolutionary series went on to achieve incredible things, yet all of them began life as a little child with a dream. The stories featured in this episode are of none other than the feisty Maya Angelou and the selfless Audrey Hepburn. I hope you enjoy them! Stay safe, stay happy and keep on dreaming and working towards making them come true! Have a grand evening 🙏🙏🤗🤗💕💕⭐️⭐️⭐️👑👑👑🌈🌈🌈🎼🎼📚📚📚

Hello hello small and big humans! Hope you’re well and have had a good weekend :-) I was rummaging through all my old audio recordings and stumbled upon this one from a long long time ago or as Anikka used to say when she was very small - long time back ago 🥰🥰 Sigh, how time flies ...... So this lovely little story that has been told, retold and rehashed in many ways and many Indian languages is about Shanmugam the lion who is of course be the king of the jungle but all he does is sleep. Worse, he snores in a peculiar way that made little Miss A giggle a lot 🤣🤣🤣One day, another lion enters the jungle. He is lean and mean. he is Gabbar Singh. The other animals are frightened, but how can they get the lazy Shanmugam to awake and save them? Listen on to hear what happens and how!! Have a fabulous evening lovely people ! Stay safe, stay happy and keep the fire burning within 🥰🥰🥰🎼🎼💪🏼💪🏼📚📚📚📚

Hello hello wonderful folks and folklets! Hope you’ve been enjoying the hot spell of sunshine 🌞 I know it might be too warm for many of you but for me, this is probably exactly where my Indian bones want to be now as I think of home and the familiarity, warmth and love it holds. Only fitting then that I take this opportunity to share my first full audio book, The Hidden Pool written by who other than Ruskin Bond, the master story teller who evokes such intense emotions and vivid imagery with one fell swoop of his pen. The Hidden Pool is Ruskin Bind’s first ever children’s book and despite having been published in 1966, is still just as fresh and relevant today as it was then! This audio book has 10 chapters and is a first without my partner in crime not because I didn’t want her as my accompanist but because I wanted to do it one go and capture each sentiment, in its truest purest form. I do hope you enjoy it. For those listeners that are not familiar with some of the words, I hope this will not take away from your enjoyment but rat why add a little mystique to it :-) in any event, most words are contextual so my sincere hope is that you will still be able to draw much joy from it! Enjoy the evening and have a glorious weekend ahead! Stay happy, stay safe, keep hydrated and keep reading! ❤️❤️❤️❤️🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🌈🌈💯💯💯💯☀️☀️🌼🌼📚📚📚📚📚📚

Hello wonderful earthlings! Hope you’re well and enjoying each day that presents itself in the best way possible 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼🤗🤗🤗💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💐💐🌞🌞This fabulously put together book is a collection of “100 tales of extraordinary women” ranging from Ada Lovelace to Rani Lakshmibai, Astrid Lindgren to Aung San Su Kyi and Katherine the Great to Malala Yousafzai, all incredible women who weren’t damsels in distress and didn’t need someone to save them. Instead they used their intellect, determination, kindness and indomitable spirit to scale new heights and do what people thought was impossible. A truly inspiring book for girls but equally empowering and informative for boys, I hope you’ll enjoy this series! Girls, remember, you can do ANYTHING. Boys, if you’re tempted to ‘help’ because a girl might need it due to her gender, refer to statement above :-) As we move ahead in this world, it’s vital that we have not just fearless girls but strong boys who can understand, accept and be secure in this reality and hence are just as much feminist as we are. I am sure most of you (parents and younglings), have read this book but I for one love coming back to it, reading it with Anikka, reminding her of how these unstoppable women changed the world in their own ways and how the world is her canvass. I hope you savour these again or for the first time. Stay safe, be happy, dream in and don’t be afraid to fail in the quest of those dreams. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💐💐🌼🌼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼💞💞💞💞🌈🌈🌈🌈🌞🌞🌟🌟⭐️⭐️⭐️💥💥💥💥☀️☄️

Hello good folks! Welcome to another edition of The Stories we Tell! Today’s wonderful, simple and completely tale tells us something which is quite relevant in today’s times - the creation and distribution of ‘fake news’ :-) I hope this piques your interest and you’ll enjoy listening to this story just as much as I did reading it. Have a lovely evening, stay safe, keep reading and find reasons, no matter how small they are, to be happy 🙏🏼🙏🏼🤗🤗❤️❤️🌼🌼💐💯💯

Hello hello, ye wandering book lovers! How are we today? From today, I’m going to start another series on everyday philosophy for kids by the great thinker, Rumi. Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi was born in Balkh Persia in what is now Afghanistan in 1207, that’s like mannnnnnnnnyyy mannnnnnnnnyyyyyyyyyyy suns and moons back !!! He was a Sufi mystic, philosopher and lover of humanity. He spent most of his life searching for divine inspiration and love. The dance of the dervish (Whirling Dervish) is said to be inspired by Rumi’s own movements in his garden as he danced in grief to mourn for the death of his friend Shams. In today’s tumultuous times, Rumi’s teachings are even more relevant. I hope both parents and kids alike will savour this. Keep reading, stay safe, seek that which makes you happy and have a lovely day! 🙏⭐️🎼📔📔📓📌✡️✡️💜💜

Hello hello lovely peeps, it’s been a dreadfully long time but I’m back with more stories and a poem too for good measure this time. Of course I had to mark my return with the name’s Bond, Ruskin Bond (and you’ll hear some cheesy stuff in the course of the stories 🤣) which will make you chuckle :-) While one story talks about the joys of idleness and sitting upon old walls dreaming, the other that I actually recorded on Ruskin Bond’s 86th birthday last month is called The Thief and is a touching story of trust and relationships. And the poem is heartwarming in every way, talking about the simple things, something I know we have all gone back to as we face this extraordinarily trying time. I Hope very much that you’ll enjoy listening to these two lovely stories and the poem and that the thoughts will resonate with you. Stay happy, stay safe and keep reading . 🌈🌈🌈🎼🎼🎼😍😍📜📔📔📙📙📕📕📓📓🥰 p.s. don’t miss my personalised copy of the book. Eeeeekkk so exciting even though it was my brother who stood in line and got it for me when he went to Landour 🥰🥰🙏🙏🤗🤗 thank you Gaurav and thank you for your words Mr Bond 🙏🙏🤗

Hello hello smalls and not so smalls! Hope you’re all well and managed to soak in some well deserved Vitamin D in the sunshine xx Today’s story is special for a variety of reasons not least because the main character’s name is Annika which is why I bought the book in the first instance and although it’s spelt differently from my A’s name, it’s a wonderful message to stay calm and think of positive things in the face of a problem. I bought this book for my A when she was 3 when we regularly read it for a couple of years until it was forgotten and picked up again only a couple of weeks back. What a joy it is to revisit books - I find time sees to fly way too quickly these times so it reminds me to hold onto my munchkin and those moments as dearly and tightly as I can! I hope you all enjoy it, have a lovely day xx

Hello hello lovely people! Hope you’re well! Do you have a few special children’s books in your life that you can never outgrow, no matter how old you are? That kind is just so special, right? If you’re a kid, you can read them when you’re older and laugh at the silly things you laughed at when you were a younger kid and when you’re generally older, I mean wiser 😁😁😇😇😇💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻, you just laugh at all the things you missed reading in the book when you were a younger and busier adult :-) The Little Miss and Mr Men series by Roger Hargreaves is one such set of books for me 😊😊😊😊 Today’s edition has four episodes containing stories ranging from the adventures of Little Miss Splendid and LIttle Miss Neat to the tales of Mr Clever and the Mr Noisy and more! Roger Hargreaves was a British author and illustrator who wrote and illustrated with bold colours and a characteristic style, the Mr Men series in 1971 followed by the Little Miss series in 1981. The stories are loved by little and big humans alike and I hope you will enjoy them too! Some have been narrated by me and some of course by my lovely CO-host, my very own creation, my little Ani who is the reason I started recording all these stories in the first place 💪🏻💪🏻🙏🏼🙏🏼🖊🖊❣️❣️❣️❣️🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼🎧🎧🎧🎤🎤🎤 With much love and warmest wishes 🙏🏼🤗❤️🌺🗒🗒🗒📚📚📚📚📖📖🖊🖊

Like all of us, my childhood too was filled with stories. My earliest recollections are of my beautiful Mama telling me stories at bed time or even meal times, in her lustrous voice. My love for stories only grew steadily from then on. I devoured books outside of school. Strangely, although Mama was a languages teacher, she never forced me to read Hindi literature so it was only in school that i was introduced to that world. One of my first Hindi that will forever remain etched in my memory and be an unshakeable part of my childhood is this story - Gillu. Written simply, majestically and beautifully by the inimitable Mahadevi Verma, one of the mat powered figures in Hindi literature at the time, Gillu is the story of a little squirrel she finds just as much as it finds her. I have read the story in Hindi so I hope that adults, parents, family and friends that understand the language can share the gist of the story with littluns. I do hope you enjoy hearing it just as much as I did reading it. Much love x

I thought it would be appropriate to call it a night with this beautiful story, Faraway Places from Room of Many Colours. Faraway Places describes the strong desire in a young boy Anil to travel great distances to faraway ports in a steamer. At a time when we are confined to our homes (foe the greater and smaller good I know), this story of initial disappointment to be quickly replaced with hope, makes me smile even though it might be wistfully for now. And if that isn’t reason enough to listen to it, then perhaps me doing a very lame Scottish accent and Anikka a much better one, is all you needed to hear to believe that all good things are coming and that it’s good to smile 😬😬😬🙏🏼🙏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🤗🤗 Happy listening, I wish you good health and happiness! 🙏🏼🙏🏼🌈🌈😍😍

And yes, no session can be complete without a Ruskin Bond story so before I retire for the night, I give you a double dose of one of my favourite authors of all time - no doubt, you’ve gathered that if you’ve been listening to my stories on this podcast :-)) 🤗🤗👏🏼👏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🌈🌈😍😍 🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏽‍♀️ I love that Ruskin Bond’s writing is simple yet so evocative, transporting you to where ever he wishes you to be with ease and endearment. Grandfather’s Many Faces is fun and so enjoyable! As always, our readings are peppered with giggles and chatter, so I hope you’ll have a great time listening Much love and hugs 🌈🌈😍🥰🥰

And this after another day of unexpected April sunshine which meant a brilliant day in the garden eating way too much, dancing away to great beats and much excitement leading to obviously, a late night again :-)) Anikka reads Punishment or Reward in her poshest accent as I, as always, like Mums do, correct her pronunciation of a few words 🤣🤣🤣🥰🥰🥰💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼 I then follow that up with Egg in the Pond. I hope you enjoy listening to these stories just as much as we did reading them 🤣🤣 🤗💕🌈🌈💕🙏🏼

Hiya peeps, how are we doing today? We were afflicted by a massive bout of the giggles while reading this session so hope you giggle along with us as you hear today’s 3 stories - The Mango Seed, Like Father Like Daughter and The Other Guest. Enjoy and happy listening 🤣🤣 🌈🌈💕🙏🏼

Hello hello you lovely people :-)) We are back from flashback to current times when it was a really hot Sunday only a couple of weekends back - do you remember that warm Sunday? I’m sure you had a cracking BBQ at home and enjoyed yourself thoroughly 🌈🌈🎼🎼🎸🎸🎤🎤🎂🎂🍤🍤🥟🥟🌮🌮🌮🍗🥓🥓🥖🥖🍹🍹 Today’s episode has another 4 stories that I’m sure you will enjoy heaps - The Shortcut, The Blind People, The Real Thief and The King or the Cabbage. Birbal was called one of the 9 gems of Akbar’s court - you can see why, can’t you? :-))) Happy listening xx There’s a lot to be learnt about the art of negotiation here as Anikka reminds me its the ‘just’ thing to do to read a 4th story 🤣🤣 🌈🌈💕🙏🏼

Hola there, kids and adults :-)) I hope you’ve all been well and making the most of this inexplicable time. I hope you’ve been reading lots and expanding your horizons 🙏🤗 Today’s episode has been read entirely by my daughter who was not quite 8 then (you see I’ve been collecting and recording these stories for years so not all are entirely recent which you might be able to tell by her voice 🥰🥰) - you might have a little trouble hearing her as she doesn’t quite holler like her Mum but I know you will absolutely love the 4 stories which are - The Farmer and the Well, Finding Birbal, The Innocent Gardener and The Lower and the Noble. Let me know which was your favourite of these 4! Happy listening xx🌈🌈💕🙏🏼

If you haven’t yet realised, you soon will, that I am a huuuuugggggeeeeee fan of Ruskin Bond. I love the simplicity of his writing and I love how he can connect almost instantaneously with the reader at so many levels! Today’s story is one that I will cherish forever - Ani and I had such a blast reading it together! I cracked lame jokes, got the pronunciation of names wrong and we both giggled without a care in the world! These are the kind of memories I wish for us all! 🌈🌈🌈💕💕🙏🏼🙏🏼🤗🤗🤩🤩🤩🤩🐷🐷🐷🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏽‍♀️ I hope you can make the best of your time in quarantine if you are lucky enough to be able to do that and read lots of books. If you’re exhausted, may I suggest you put this on and get a little time by yourself even if it’s just cuddling with the littluns while you both have a mindless laugh 🤩🤩🤩🤪🤪😬😬😬💥💥🍭🍭🍭😆😆😆 I really do hope both adults and kids will have heaps of fun listening to this story! Much love and hugs 🌈🌈😍🥰🥰

One of my absolutely favouritest authors in the world, Ruskin Bond charms with his simple and lucid writing. His stories are endearing and heart warming, often laugh out loud funny and sometimes slightly scary but they never cease to keep the reader engaged making him or her fall more in love with the art of wordsmithery. In my eyes, he’s an absolute genius which is why I read sooooo many of his stories with Ani. Today’s two are different genres but I hope they will both make your heart happy. I hope you enjoy listening! Cheerio! Xx

Welcome back kids and adults alike I hope :-)) For kids, I hope you’ll have oodles of fun. For parents, I hope you’re looking forward to the weekend so you can put your feet up. I hope these stories will give you the choice to relax a little in the knowledge that the kids will have something to hear for a good few minutes and you can have a drink, wrap up niggly bits or just do nothing if you wish! Today’s 3 story suite is The King’s dream, Akbar’s parrot and The Four Fools. Don’t you think Birbal is the coolest! He’s got such a way with words and how quick thinking he is, isnt he? Happy listening xx🌈🌈💕🙏🏼

Hello folks! I hope you’re savouring the sunshine a bit and are trying to find small reasons to smile. I know it’s not easy but if our hearts are full of gratitude and kindness, a lot can be achieved. I’m trying to keep your mood as upbeat as possible so here’s the next instalment of Akbar Birbal stories. These 3 are - Footprint of an Elephant, Mullah’s head and The Beautiful Child, the last one being one of my favourite stories as for any parent their child is undoubtedly the most beautiful one in the world 💕💕🥰🥰 Let me know how you got on and which was your favourite story! Enjoy the stories with Mums and Dads and siblings if you have them around too xx🌈🌈💕🙏🏼

Well hello there! I hope you’ve been staying positive and trying to find joy in the small things because frankly sometimes that’s all we can do 👏🏼👏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼😍🌈 I’ve got three more wonderful stories for you from the Akbar Birbal collection - Crows in the Kingdom, Birbal’s khichdi and Four Fingers. I do hope you will enjoy them just as much as I did telling them!! 👍🏼🤗🙏🏼

Hey hey you lovely people! How’s the mood today? Did you have a chance to listen to the first 4 stories from the wonderful Akar Birbal collection? If you did, I’m sure you have started to get an idea of how witty our friend Birbal is! Today we have Akbar’s Lost Ring and the Merchant and the Thief. Hope you all enjoy them xx

Hello little and big humans! How are you all? I hope you’ve enjoyed the last series of Indian tales, Panchatantra, that we grew up listening to. This series is another wonderful collection of stories that talk of wit, kindness and quick wittedness, the famous and extremely popular Akbar Birbal stories. Birbal was one of the most respected ministers in King Akbar’s court and was well known for solving problems in his trademark way of intelligent humour. Today you’ll hear 4 stories - the first meeting of Akbar and Birbal, Birbal’s half reward, the Wicked Barber and the Jealous Courtier. I do hope you will enjoy them just as much as you did the Panchatantra Tales! 👍🏼🤗🙏🏼

And with today’s stories - The Brahmin and the Goat and the Hunter and the Doves, we come to the end of the 15 story compilation of our much loved Panchatantra stories. I’ve had the best time reading these stories with Anikka and sharing them with you. And I And I can’t wait to share a new series with you all - the classic stories of Akbar and Birbal. More on that in my next episode. Until then, keep reading, keep listening and keep your love for the written and speaking word burning bright !! 🥰🥰🤗🤗

Hello kiddos! What have you been upto these days? The times we live in are strange and not everything makes sense. It can be hard to not be able to be outside, meet your friends, skip around with gay abandon and do things that you have taken for granted. But it’s the right thing to do if we want to save the lives of everyone around us and the dedicated people who help us stay safe and healthy. So please use this time to do all the things you haven’t had a chance to and don’t forget to add reading to that list!! Back then to our Panchatantra series - today’s episode has two stories - the Musical Donkey and the Heron and the Crab. Hope you enjoy them! Xx