Some of the classical Indian stories include stories based on the life of Lord Krishna which includes incidents like Lord Krishna’s Birth, Lord Krishna’s Life in Gokul, Lord Krishna Returns to Mathura, The Story of Krishna and Rukmini, Krishna and the Syamantaka Gem, Krishna and Jarasandha and Krishna and Narakasura. Incidents from Indian Mythological epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata also form an important part in Indian classical stories.

Story telling sessions are a great way to create bonding with children. Grandparents can spend their time narrating interesting stories to their children. Incase of absence of grandparents, it is parents who are seen telling interesting stories to their children. However, all parents may not be a good story teller.

There are many classical Indian story books that are available which make the task of telling a story easier. These books are also filled with attractive pictures that help the children to visualize and imagine the characters and the story.

Some of the classical Indian story books which can be purchased online and offline as well are:

• How Parvati won the heart of Shiva? – Harish Johari
• How Ganesha got his elephant Head? – Harish Johari
• Little Krishna – Harish Johari
• Hindu/Sikh/Islamic/Buddhist/Jewish/Christian Stories – Anita Ganeri
• Hanuman- Erik Jendresen
• Ram the Demon Slayer: Classic Indian Stories for Children – Vatsala Sperling
• Seasons of Splendour: Tales, Myths and Legends of India by Madhur Jaffrey
• Rama and the Demon King (Dual Language) : by Jessica Souhami

Other books include Amar chitra Katha, Panchatantra, Aesop’s fables and Jataka Tales which are famous amongst Indian children.

Telling bedtime stories to your children can be a great way to share a good time with them. Most dads return home when children are almost asleep. Hence, to make them go to bed by telling them a story helps to create a strong bond between children and parents.

Children want to listen to new bedtime stories every night. Most parents know about some famous stories like Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Little Red Riding Hood etc. However, to tell a different story each day is indeed a task! For this, there are many books that are available that have various bedtime stories. Since these books have attractive pictures that support the story, children indeed get excited to see the pictures, listen to the story and then immerse in their dreamland. However, it is recommended that parents should avoid telling stories which have a mention about ghost or something that can make the child feel scary. More often than not, children dream about stories that they hear during bedtime. Hence try and narrate pleasant happy-ending type stories that make your children have a sound sleep.

Some of the famous bedtime story books are mentioned below. These can be purchased online as well:

• The Everything Bedtime Storybook – Mark Binder
• 365 Bedtime stories – Christine Allison
• Leather Treasury Bedtime Stories by Jane Jerrard
• Disney 365 Bedtime Stories by TK

Story telling is indeed an art and parents can make a story telling session interesting and exciting through their actions and voice modulation. In fact school going kids can learn their lessons (especially history) in the form of a story.

Stories based on Indian mythology can not only interest your child but they also make for a knowledgeable and recreational reading/listening. Indian Mythology contains stories of courage, adventure, compassion, love that inculcate good values and ethics in children.

Religion plays a vital role in India. For example, most Hindu households tell their children mythological stories from Mahabharata, Ramayana and the Bhagvad Gita. However, this may be true only to some extent as India is a land of unity in diversity. There are many mythological stories that explain why we celebrate festivals and other occasions. Like for instance, Children know why we celebrate Diwali if they know stories from Indian mythology – It is because Diwali was the day when King Rama’s coronation was celebrated in Ayodhya after victory.

Stories of various Gods and Goddesses are told to children. For example: instances in Lord Krishna’s life are told as short interesting stories to children, stories about Lord Ganesha, Stories of Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva, Goddesses Saraswati, Goddesses Laxmi, Goddess Kali, Goddess Durga etc all form a part of mythological stories.

The reason mythological stories are popular because they have a message for every child. The charm of these stories is that they stay with us forever. As adults too we remember some of the famous mythological stories.

Some of the mythological story books available for children are:

• How Parvati won the heart of Shiva? – Harish Johari
• How Ganesha got his elephant Head? – Harish Johari
• Little Krishna – Harish Johari
• Hindu/Sikh/Islamic/Buddhist/Jewish/Christian Stories – Anita Ganeri
• Hanuman- Erik Jendresen
• Ram the Demon Slayer: Classic Indian Stories for Children – Vatsala Sperling
• Rama and the Demon King (Dual Language) by Jessica Souhami

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1. Classic Stories

However, in case of a fairy tale or other imaginary story, we do not know whether these stories are true or not! Apart from fairy tales, children love listening to true stories because they can relate their experiences to it. For example, if a child has a habit of biting his nails, parents and grandparents will tell him a story of a boy who would bite his nails and how he suffered. This will in turn make the child realize that he should not bite his nails. True stories can thus help children to improve their own habits.

Also, there are many eminent personalities of India from which children can draw a lot of inspiration. These anecdotes can form a part of true stories. For example, stories of leaders and eminent personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Swami Vivekananda etc. Also, books containing true short stories of Lord Buddha and Mahavira, Jesus Christ and others are also available.

A story can be a great form of inspiration. It has the capability and the power of altering a person’s life. Some of the values taught to children through stories remain with them life long. True short stories inspire and motivate them to do something and think big in their life.

There are many true stories that are published online apart from the books. One of the advantage of narrating a story from a book is that it becomes easy fro children to imagine the incidents and the characters of the story. Be it adventure, courage, hard work, achievement, humor, moral lessons or anything else, true short stories are available for children of all age groups.