Goodbye Pasha Begum! from The Puffin Book of Spooky Ghost Stories
Bindi is holidaying in New Delhi with her parents and older sister. The family head to Rang Mahal - the palace of colours. It's getting late and Bindi is tired. She rests in one of the rooms of the Mahal and dozes off. She wakes up to find herself in the same room, strangely clad in a sharara. Somehow time has rewound to the Mughal era and Bindi is now a slave girl. She is almost whiplashed by the princess Roshanara. Fortunately for her, Pasha Begum intervenes.
Bishnu - The Dhobi Singer
Bishnu is a young boy and an ardent fan of music. One day, he attends Ustad Badlu Khan of Dili’s concert and unbeknownst to him, shares his review of the concert with the one and only Mian Tansen from Akbar’s court. Tansen, visibly impressed by Bishnu’s observations and talent, decides to take him under his wing and train him. No longer just a dhobi singer, Bishnu is now under Tansen’s tutelage in Fatehpur Sikri. Bishnu's life changes for the better as he rises to the occasion and stuns everybody who, till then, had looked on him as a mere dhobi boy. Bishnu’s story is that of perseverance coupled with hard work and urges the readers to follow their dreams.
A Mauryan Adventure
It is the third century BCE. In Pataliputra, the famous capital city of the mighty Mauryan Empire, resides Madhura, the daughter of a soldier in King Ashoka’s army. When her father perishes during the terrible battle with the Kingdom of Kalinga, the twelve year old girl takes up the duties of a princess' maid to make ends meets.
Madhura is unhappy with her life of drudgery and yearns to travel across the land like Karthik, her brother, who is a trader. One day she gets her wish and finds herself on a trail of a mystery. Is Karthik who he says he is?
The Secret Diary of the World's Worst Cook
Rohin is fifteen. Both his parents are famous physicists with a long list of enviable degrees - MSc, PhD, Dsc. But Rohin is a "flunker" in physics, a duffer in chemistry and a disaster in biology. He must tell his parents that he doesn’t want to choose the science stream at the plus two level. But how?
In summer, Rohin goes to Bari Ammi and Dadaji’s place in Lucknow. Here, he finds an old diary written by a boy who describes himself as the world’s worst cook. This is terrible for him, because his father, grandfather and a few forefathers were all chefs.
Rohin spends the summer tracking down the mystery boy. He also tries his hand at cooking, and prepares to talk to his father. Is he successful in the three tasks?
