Deepa Agarwal - Best Stories from Around the World

Author, poet and translator, Deepa Agarwal writes for both children and adults and has about fifty published books to her credit. She has received several awards for her work. The picture book, Ashoks New Friends, was awarded the National Award for Childrens Literature by the National Council of Educational Research and Training while her historical fiction, Caravan to Tibet, featured in the International Board on Books for Young People Honor List of 2008. Five of her titles have also been listed in the White Raven Catalogue of the International Youth Library, Munich.

To my mother, Nancy Rawat,

who introduced me to so many short stories

Published in Red Turtle by

Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd 2017

7/16, Ansari Road, Daryaganj

New Delhi 110002

Copyright Deepa Agarwal 2017

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-81-291-XXX-X

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated, without the publishers prior consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published.

Contents

Oscar Wilde

O. Henry

Saki

Hans Christian Andersen

Margaret Bhatty

H.G. Wells

Joel Chandler Harris

Minoo Karimzadeh

Arthur Conan Doyle

Beverley Naidoo

Tsendyin Damdinsren

Leonid Andreiev

Emile Gaboriau

Jerry Pinto

Washington Irving

Introduction

O NCE UPON a time there was a story. The child who read it was so enchanted that she/he couldnt stop at just one and kept searching for more and more. And what did that child discover? That there is no end to the number of stories you can devour with pleasure, because so many different kinds of stories have been written by so many authors at different times and in different places, all over the wide world.

What kinds of stories? Fairy tales and fantasies that will carry you off to imaginary worlds. Stories about real life events. Stories set in times past but also in the living present. Then detective stories that will make you bite your nails in suspense, and ghost stories that send a delicious shiver up your spine. There are funny stories that make you chuckle, but also stories that make you flare up with anger or shed a tear because they point out what is sadly wrong in our world. Some are about the essential goodness of human beings that remains unchanged in the worst of times, but some show us that dishonesty and cruelty exist alongside and that sometimes its hard to recognize right from wrong. Some stories warm your heart, some make you think and some delight you with their magical language and enthral you with the extraordinary characters that people them or the gripping events that they unfold.

There is so much variety in the universe of stories that putting together this collection posed a bit of a challenge for me. So how did I tackle it? The easiest part was to travel back in time to dig up old favourites, of course, but it was extremely exciting to reach across the world to search for new ones. It was also a wonderful journey in reading because I discovered so many stories. Some told me about places and ways of life quite unfamiliar to me and some brought up issues and ideas that I had not thought deeply about before. So, in my attempt to put together a potpourri of stories that children with different tastes in reading might enjoy, I gained a lot.

How does one define a short story? There are many aspects to it, but I rather like what pioneering American short story writer Edgar Allan Poe had said in his essay The Philosophy of Composition, that you should be able to read it in one sitting, anywhere from a half hour to two hours. That is the beauty of a short story, I feel. It can help you to fill up a short empty space in your day very enjoyablywhether its while waiting for your turn at a dentists or to catch a flight at an airport, without the frustration you experience when you have to abandon a gripping novel at the height of the action.

Our tastes in reading vary, as I mentioned earlier. Keeping this in mind, Ive tried to make sure that you can flip the pages of this book and find a story that belongs to your favourite genre or suits your current mood.

If you are looking for a story that transports you beyond the mundane realities of our daily life you can go for Washington Irvings Rip Van Winkle. Its a story I loved as a child and have re-read many times as an adult. And its not just the possibility that supernatural beings might exist or a man can go to sleep for twenty years that always draws me, but the lovable character of Rip Van Winkle. Many of us know people like him, men who shirk regular work but are always there to help which makes them very popular with their neighbours. Said to be inspired by a folktale, this story is considered an all-time classic and with good reason.

The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde is also set outside the bounds of our realitya fairy tale that carries a hidden meaning like many such tales do. It touched me deeply because it is a story of transformation and shows how children can melt even the stony heart of a self-centred man. Best of all, this change ultimately leads to his salvation. Talking about fairy tales, how could I leave out one of Hans Christian Andersens well-loved classics? I have chosen The Brave Tin Soldier, a tender story written by one of the best writers for children in the world ever. There is often a deep vein of sadness in Andersens stories that probably reflects the hardships he faced in his own childhood. But we can admire the steadfastness of the one-legged tin soldier, whose love for the paper ballerina shines bright through all his troubles.

It would be hard to put together a collection of memorable stories without including one of O. Henrys masterpieces. So we have The Gift of the Magi, a heart-warming Christmas story, an enduring narrative of devotion and sacrifice with the usual twist in the tale that was his trademark.

These are tales that move our hearts, but the stories in this book explore all kinds of themes and arouse a gamut of responses.

Freedom by Margaret Bhatty pitilessly exposes the corruption that has infected our system of law enforcement, when an old man with Gandhian ideals receives a criminals punishment, only because he cannot abandon the values dear to him. We need such stories more than ever today, you might agree. The Dare by South African writer Beverly Naidoo is a moving story about peer pressure. It highlights the brutality of a racist society while subtly weaving in a young girls gesture of protest, a small gesture, but meaningful in its own way. Minoo Karimzadehs The Last Ticket transports us to Iran. The tale of young Sohrabs struggle with financial hardship when his family moves to a city is also a heartening portrayal of the empathy that is spontaneously aroused when we encounter someone who is worse off than us. In a sense, the last two stories I mentioned are coming of age, or growing up tales. So is The Minikin-Eared Ewe by Tsendyin Damdinsren that is set in the steppes of Mongolia, where a young boy battles the elementsa raging fire that he is ill-equipped to deal with. The author weaves a rich tapestry of the herdsmens way of life and narrates the story of the boys helplessness with a depth of feeling. We feel privileged to enter an environment quite unknown to us, and discover the challenges youngsters in other parts of the world face.