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Caw...caw! All set for your holiday in forests? In her books on the wildlife that have their home in the jungles and to those who live in our backyard, Arefa Tehsin's writing brings alive the natural ecosystem in all its varied colours. Her latest book for young readers, The Great Indian Safari is an exciting drive through the forests of India, with the Jungle Crow as its narrator.  If you have booked a wildlife safari, we suggest taking this book (there's a lot in here for adults as well!) as your guide. The jungle crow, known as Charred the Bird, will rap some songs, steer you in the right direction (you know, tourists do behave little wildly in the forests....) and is full of sane advice and nuggets of information that you can ponder on.   With eye catching illustrations, songs and introduction to animals from tigers, to cobra and gharial and hares, The Great Indian Safari gently prods us to look at the life teeming in the jungle with a sense of wonder, curiosit...

  Lured by stories   What if you come upon a world of stories, hundreds and thousands of them? Some of them have endured for millennia and some are almost forgotten; the characters who inhabit this world are rare and special. It’s a world that’s unknown yet exciting. But is it welcoming? Definitely not. Iora, Owlus and Chinar find this out the hard way. In the Book 2 of Iora adventures, the three friends are now boarders at a Gurukul in rainforest. Soon enough, the trio learn of strange going-ons in their Gurkul, a prophesy that might come to the aid of dark forces. The three dive straight into the adventure – Iora and the Realm of Legends -- without really being prepared. They hitch on to The Laughing Boy Who Never Dies, a visitor to their world. The Laughing Boy, a character from one of the stories, rather reluctantly takes along the trio, all the while telling them they are on their own, once he reaches his story. But the fun of any story lies in the twist that no...

'There was nothing wrong in it,' Dada Bhai said, his head bent towards the cold, unyielding floor. 'Sir?' asked Tapan, who had followed him out, just as he had ushered him in personally. 'A boy and girl loved each other. There was nothing wrong in what Sanaz did. Love. That is what is halal for me.' Valmiki would not be contained, she knew, whenever the news reached him. He would rage within. Waste away in the cavity of his chest. She needed to bundle up all her nerve and pack it inside her. Convey to him soundlessly that he was fortunate to be loved for two years. Two years! An eternity for someone who had not got two whole hours of it in her life.  'A whiff of rosewater is enough...' On Makar Sankranti when the kites soar high, Sanaz' wings are brutally clipped. She is found dead in her room and what follows is a trail of questions hiding violence in their midst; of corrosive human behaviour. The ugliness and degenerate behaviour of the many a char...

  Every morning we wake up to doom and gloom -- the unseasonal rainfall, the floods, the drought, disappearing mangroves, urban forests being mowed down, the dip and the sudden rise in temperature and the illnesses that come with it. What is the world coming to? Can we put a stop to it? Perhaps; for the answer lies within us. In contrast, Iora’s world seems radiant – the trees are tall, the woods are deep, and so colourful with greens and blues, talking birds and animals. Why not? She lives in Twitterland, a hidden rainforest, with hardly any communication with the outside world. But you see the jungle is also doomed, as Iora discovers. The evil forces are dominant and her father’s life is in danger. She has to quickly track down the Five Angels and elusive Spirit of Jungle and get them to meet at Scar-faced lake, on a moonless night. For the first time in her 11 years, Iora steps out of Twitterland, but she is not alone. A dwarf Beetle and her friend-rival, Owlus keep her co...