A Twist in the Tale: More Indian Folktales

From Bengal to Bastar and Kashmir to Coorg, there are stories that have been handed down generations: bedtime stories for children, fireside stories for travelers, who have heard these tales, wondered at them and repeated them to others. In A Twist in the Tale: More Indian Folklores, Aditi De collects forty such stories from various parts of India and retells them with dollops of humour.

A friendless crocodile, a timid mouse and a vain fox are among some of the eccentric characters that appear in this book. There is also a clever princess, a hapless priest with heron feathers flying out of his mouth, and galleries of rough. Strange happenings are not uncommon, so a nail grows out of nail clippings and a beetle saves a man from the dungeons. Full of the details of everyday life, festivities and food, these ageless stories have seldom been so exciting and such fun. Accompanied by Uma Krishnaswamy's brilliant illustrations, this book will introduce the magic of Indian folktales to a new generation of readers

About the Author:

Aditi De is a freelance writer and editor based in Bangalore. She has worked at Indian Express and been associate Editor of the children's magazine Junior Quest, which she launched for the Chennai-based Chandamama group. She later edited Open Seasame, the children's supplement, Sunday Herald and Articulations magazine pages of Deccan Herald. She has written children's columns for Chatterbox magazine, Deccan Chronicle and Young World. She is the author of Articulations, a collection of interviews with contemporary Indian visual artists.