Long ago, in Rajpur, a town in Maharashtra, lived a man named Hazar-Marya. People rarely called him by any other name. The nickname had stuck years ago because of one strange habit he had developed. Every day, he would leave home and kill one thousand flies. That was all he did. He had no job, Read more…

Some folk tales are remembered for magical creatures. Others survive because of a clever twist that listeners enjoy retelling long after the story is over. This old tale from Andhra Pradesh belongs to the second category. At the heart of it is a trader’s daughter whose quick thinking repeatedly helps her succeed against people far Read more…

Long ago, there lived a man named Kora and his brothers. They shared a home, worked the same land, and depended on the same harvest. Yet there was one important difference between Kora and the others. His brothers worked. Kora did not. While the others spent long hours in the fields, Kora preferred to sleep Read more…