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Stories about family & friendship

The people who stand by us.

#FamilyAndFriendship20 stories

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.

3 min readAges 8+The Ramayana
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.

3 min readAges 6+The Ramayana
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?

4 min readAll agesThe Bhagavata Purana
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.

3 min readAges 9+The Mahabharata
Life LessonsClassic retold

After Twenty Years

Two young friends in New York promise to meet in the same doorway exactly twenty years later. One of them keeps the appointment. O. Henry's story of loyalty and duty.

5 min readAges 12+1900s
SportsBiography

Four Golds in Berlin

The grandson of enslaved people, born to a poor farming family in Alabama, went to the 1936 Olympic Games in Hitler's Germany and won four gold medals.

4 min readAges 10+1910s–1930s
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.

4 min readAges 10+1980s–2010s
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.

4 min readAges 8+2000s–2020s
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.

4 min readAges 8+2000s–2010s
True StoriesTrue story

The Dog Who Waited

Every evening, a big white dog waited at Shibuya Station in Tokyo for his master's train. One day his master did not come home. The dog kept waiting, for almost ten years.

3 min readAges 8+1920s–1930s
Life LessonsClassic retold

The Lottery Ticket

After supper one evening, a comfortable husband and wife discover that their lottery ticket might have won a fortune. Before they even check the number, things begin to change. Chekhov's sharp, funny story.

5 min readAges 12+1880s
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.

4 min readAges 12+1890s
SportsBiography

The Shoeshine Boy Who Won the World Cup

A poor boy in Brazil, who played barefoot with a ball made of socks, once saw his father cry over a lost World Cup. Eight years later, aged seventeen, he kept a promise.

4 min readAges 8+1940s–1950s
For KidsFable & folk tale

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

A plain little country mouse visits her grand cousin in the big town, where the food is fancy and the plates are silver. But there is something the town mouse forgot to mention.

3 min readAges 4–8Ancient Greece
KindnessClassic retold

The Happy Prince

A golden statue who can see all the sorrow of his city asks a little swallow to give away his jewels and gold, one piece at a time. Oscar Wilde's tender fairy tale.

6 min readAges 8+1880s
For KidsFable & folk tale

The Lion and the Mouse

A mighty lion laughs when a tiny mouse promises to repay his kindness one day. Then the hunters' net falls.

3 min readAges 4–8Ancient Greece
MotivationBiography

The Girl Who Was Told She Would Never Walk

As a child, Wilma Rudolph wore a metal brace on her leg after polio. At twenty, she became the fastest woman in the world.

3 min readAges 8+1940s–1960s
For KidsFable & folk tale

The Monkey and the Crocodile

A clever monkey shares sweet fruit with a crocodile every day. But one afternoon, halfway across the river, his friend tells him a terrible secret.

3 min readAges 5–9Ancient India
Life LessonsClassic retold

Kabuliwala

A five-year-old girl in Calcutta becomes best friends with a tall Afghan fruit-seller. Years later he returns, and her father understands what they shared. Tagore's beloved story.

5 min readAges 10+1890s
For KidsOriginal story

The Broken Kite

Tavi didn't mean to break his sister's kite. Hiding it seemed easy, but keeping a secret turned out to be much heavier than telling the truth.

3 min readAges 5–8