Illustrated Kid Stories

By Hiranya Borah

I used to tell bed time stories to my two children when they were young. Some of those stories were retold and some of them are out of my cheer imagination. Telling every day a new story is itself a real challenge. I told them Aesop’s stories, stories from Panchatantra, stories from Mahabharata and Ramayana, folklores of Assam, compilation of Rasaraj Laxminath Bezbarua. Whenever I had to repeat any story, I had to use lot of spices on the original versions. Sometimes they liked those and sometimes they dumped those, with a scream ‘Why you are repeating the same story once again?
Therefore, these are not my stories, but real authors are someone else. Some of the stories already published in my earlier book Putting Children to bed. Therefore, do not try to find any originality in these stories; but still I hope children will like the stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hiranya Borah
• Release date: Oct 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370036073

Hiranya Borah

The author was a government servant and is a man of vivid experiences derived from his official postings across the country, travels across India and numerous visits outside India. He is presently staying in the NCR.He has published more than 190 eBooks and has published 18 English & 2 Assamese books in print so far. Apart from writing books, he is also a motivational speaker for the youngsters.The highpoint on his literary career came when after receiving a copy of his book, ‘Chandraprabha: The Iron Lady of Assam’, the Hon’ble PM of India had tweeted from his personal tweeter handle about the book and which was re-tweeted by around 4000 viewers within hours of his tweeting.

Book preview

Illustrated Kid Stories

Hiranya Borah

Copyright 2017 Hiranya Borah

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Preamble

I have three children; the first two have only two years gap whereas the third one is nine and a half years younger than the second one. When the first two were in schools, I was posted in Guwahati and then I had to move to Delhi. So entire schooling of my third child, second daughter, Anwesha was at New Delhi. She has one major complain amongst others, is that I have not told her enough bed time stories which I used tell to my two elder children, Anusuya and Ayusman. Am I biased against her? Am I becoming older to tell sufficient bed time stories to her? No, the actual culprit (?) is un-interrupted electricity supply in Delhi, particularly, New Delhi area where I use to stay now. Guwahati was infamous for load-shedding of electricity, particularly in summer season when I used to live in Guwahati. I am not sure whether the situation has improved or not in the last thirteen years or so. During those load shedding time, I used to tell bed time stories to my two children. Some of those stories were retold and some of them are out of my cheer imagination. Telling every day a new story is itself a real challenge. I told them Aesop’s stories, stories from Panchatantra, stories from Mahabharata and Ramayana, folklores of Assam, compilation of Rasaraj Laxminath Bezbarua. Whenever I had to repeat any story, I had to use lot of spices on the original versions. Sometimes they liked those and sometimes they dumped those, with a scream ‘Why you are repeating the same story once again?

Due to my younger daughter’s persistent demand I attempt to jot down some stories in my own rustic ways in this book. These stories are bed time stories and therefore, I am not claiming any originality nor am I claiming any authenticity of the original stories. In other words, the origins of the stories are from some famous books or from memories of my childhood, but now I am presenting those in my own language and along with my own interpretation and with some twists and turns.

I am thankful to all the authors who originally wrote these stories and my elders who used to tell me these stories for the first time when I was a village kid.

I place my sincere gratitude to all my readers, my family members for encouraging me to write this compilation like putting old wine in new bottles.

I am always thankful to google and the original photographers and artists for using their pics as representative pics without associating any relation with photographs of the concerned persons or the animals with the characters of stories.

I shall be a sinner, if I do not express my gratitude to my parents, brothers, sisters, friends, foes and teachers for their support for developing my personality, good or bad depending upon the perspective of the person who is looking at me

Finally, I dedicate this book to my younger daughter, Anwesha for her persistent demand for writing this book.

Author

Chapter I: Horse and donkey

As a part of moral study, in Assamese language, this story was read by me when I was a student of class three in my village school. I am not sure the origin of the story. Therefore, acknowledging the contribution of the original writer of the story in shaping my character, I am trying to reproduce the story in my own language.

One fine morning, a donkey singing a song in the praise of the king, was walking by the side of a highway. He was very happy as his master had given a one day off due to Gandhi Jayanti, birth day Father of the Nation, from his tough duty of carrying household goods from one place to another place on his back. But his happiness was short lived.

A horse was coming from the opposite side. The horse was also on a holiday mood as his master also gave him a holiday