Along with folktales, I will now share curious stories, mostly lesser known ones, that do not fall into the folktales category.

Starting with The Man Who Counted: A Collection of Mathematical Adventures by Malba Tahan. What an incredible little book that I stumbled upon. A lovely, simple book of stories involving mathematics.

Malba Tahan, full name Ali Yezzid Izz-Edin ibn-Salim Hanak Malba Tahan, was a fictitious Persian scholar. He was the creation and frequent pen name of Brazilian author Júlio César de Mello e Souza.

Here's one story from the book:

BEASTS OF BURDEN

Of the singular episode of the thirty-five camels that were to be divided between three Arab brothers. How Beremiz Samir, the Man Who Counted, made an apparently impossible division that left the quarreling brothers completely satisfied. The unexpected profit that the transaction brought us.

We had been traveling for a few hours without stopping when there occurred an episode worth retelling, wherein my companion Beremiz put to use his talents as an esteemed cultivator of algebra.

Close to an old half abandoned inn, we saw three men arguing heatedly beside herd of camel. Amid the shouts and insults the men gestured wildly in fierce debate and we could hear their angry cries:

“It cannot be!”
“That is robbery!”
“But I do not agree!”

The intelligent Beremiz asked them why they were quarreling.
“We are brothers,” the oldest explained, “And we received thirty-five camels as our inheritance. According to the express wishes of my father half of them belong to me, one- third to my brother Hamed, and one-ninth to Harim, the youngest. Nevertheless we do not know how to make the division, and whatever one of us suggests the other two disputes. Of the solutions tried so far, none have been acceptable. If half of 35 is 17.5 if neither one-third nor one-ninth of this amount is a precise-number, then how can we make the division?” “

Very simple,” said the Mar, Who Counted. “I promise to make the division fairly, but let me add to the inheritance of 35 camels this splendid beast that brought us here at such an opportune moment.”

At this point I intervened.

“But I cannot permit such madness. How are we going to continue on our journey if we are left without a camel?”

“Do not worry, my Baghdad friend,” Beremiz, said in a whisper. “I know exactly what I am doing. Give me your camel, and you will see what results.”

And such was the tone of confidence in his voice that, without the slightest hesitation, I gave over my beautiful Jamal, which was then added to the number that had to be divided between the three brothers.

“My friends,” he said, “I am going to make a fair and accurate division of the camels as you can see, now number 36.”

Turning to the eldest of the brothers, he spoke thus: “You would have half of 35—that is 17.5. Now you will receive half of 36—that is 18. You have nothing to complain about because you gain by this division.”

Turning to the second heir, he continued, “And you, Hamed, you would have received one-third of 35—that is, 11 and some. Now you will receive one-third of 36 that is 12. You cannot protest as you too gain by this division.

Finally he spoke to the youngest, “And you young Harim Namir, according to your father’s last wishes you were to receive one-ninth of 35 or three camels and part of another. Nevertheless, I will give you one-ninth of 36, or 4. You have benefited substantially and should be grateful to me for it.”

And he concluded with the greatest confidence, “By this advantageous division, which has benefited everyone, 18 camels belong to the oldest, 12 to the next, and 4 to the youngest, which comes out to—18 + 12 + 4 = 34 camels. Of the 36 camels, therefore, there are 2 extra. One, as you know, belongs to my friend from Baghdad. The other rightly belongs to me for having resolved the complicated problem of the inheritance to everyone’s satisfaction.”

“Stranger, you are a most intelligent man,” exclaimed the oldest of the three brothers, “and we accept your solution with the confidence that it was achieved with justice and equity.”

The clever Beremiz the Man Who Counted, took possession of one of the finest animals in the herd and, handing me the reins of my own animal, said, “Now, dear friend, you can continue the journey on your camel, comfortable and content. I have one of my own to carry me.”

And we traveled on towards Baghdad.

Here is the full book:

We find in the extraordinary work on Jātakas by H.T. Francis and E.J. Thomas, the following lines:

"Benfey held that although the impulse to invent folktales is a feature of general human nature, yet the existing folktales of Europe and Asia as a matter of fact originated in India."

"The great authority of Benfey has popularised the view that Indian folktales originated with the Buddhists.
Benfey's main argument for the Buddhistic origin of Indian folktales was the fact that traces of Buddhism appeared to be found in the Panchatantra, the Indian collection of tales which has become widely known in the West as the fables of Bidpai. From this he inferred that the Panchatantra was a Buddhist work revised by Brahmins. But we now know that the work was of Brahmin origin, and had been revised in the versions which Benfey used by Buddhist or Jain editors. This has been proved by Dr Hertel, who has edited and translated a much earlier form of the Panchatantra, known as the Tantrdkhyayika, which is purely Brahmanistic and without any Buddhist features. The question of the history of Indian folktales has not been simplified by this discovery, but it has made it impossible to look for their origin in Buddhism."

"Each separate story is embedded in a framework, which forms the Story of the Present. This is generally an account of some incident in the life of the historic Buddha, such as an act of disobedience or folly among the brethren of the Order, the discussion of a question of ethics, or an instance of eminent virtue. Buddha then tells a Story of the Past, an event in one of his previous existences which explains the present incident as a repetition of the former one, or as a parallel case, and shews the moral consequences. To adapt such an ancient tale was in general a simple matter, as it was not necessary to make the actors Buddhists. The tale might be told of a past time when there was no Buddha in existence, and in which the ideas are those of ordinary Hinduism. The one feature necessary for the story is that the Bodhisatta in some character should appear. When the tale itself contained no instance of a wise person who could play the part of the Bodhisatta, modification was necessary; though this is often done by making the Bodhisatta a divinity or a sage who witnesses the events and recites the gathas, the verses with which the tale concludes. Some of the stories of the past are evidently manufactured by adapting the circumstances in the story of the present, and building up a story of the past out of it.?

"The independent origin of similar tales is still a tenable theory; but it is possible to shew, on the assumption that they are connected, that a path of transmission from India to Greece was open long before communications were established by Alexander. This was from India to Persia, and from Persia to Asia Minor. It can also be shewn that tales from India actually reached Persia and the Euphrates district independently of any Greek mediation. Relations with India in the sixth century B.C. are shewn by the inscriptions of Darius the Great (621—486 B.C.), especially in one at Persepolis, which mentions Indush (the Indus district) and Gandara among the peoples who brought him tribute. In the Story of when they Ahikar we have a Persian or Babylonian story which Benfey identified with a well-known Indian type."

I will be sharing some Jātaka tales in the coming days.

Indian folklore is rich in mythical beings. From Apsarās and Asuras to Vetālas and Vidyādharas. Each mythical being is representative of a complex web of relationships among Gods, humans and the different strata of existence.

This appendix on Mythical Beings appears in The Ocean of Story being C.H. Tawney's translation of Somadeva's Kathāsaritsāgara. I hope to share many more stories from this collection.

Adventures of Bhima, Prince of Benares is a story by Murkot Kunhappa. It is the first story in the book Three Bags of Gold and Other Indian Folk Tales published in 1963.

It is a simple story with traditional motifs of a prince and his friends, princess, adventures and final victory.

I have calculated the reading difficulty using a couple of formulas below:

Flesch Reading Ease score: 87.5
This means that this story is easy to read.

Automated Readability Index: 4.5
Grade level: 8-9 yrs old

With appropriate scaffolds (such as read alouds), I think this text can be taken up at grade 1 or 2 level as well.

We have started a small new project to bring Folk Tales (and fairy tales) from around the world to learners at Northstar, with a particular focus on tales from India. I have, since quite a long time, felt the need to tell and hear stories that feel rooted in our sensibilities, our culture. Our kids read and hear amazing stories from around the world, including the Grimm Brothers' stories. These are German folk tales, sanitised and domesticated by Grimm Brothers themselves and perhaps with each new revision and publication that followed since. Popular Grimm stories include Cinderella, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Rumpelstiltskin and more. We also read Hans Christian Anderson's stories for children. Roald Dahl, of course, Dr Seuss and more. These are all wonderful stories. The latter two tend to be more appropriate for slightly older kids (older than preschoolers). Like most things adults do, we tend to sanitize, abridge, contextualise and, essentially, dumb down stories to make them "appropriate" for children. While there may be sound logic to it, I believe that we sometimes rob kids of the vast imaginative field that stories provide, by putting up fences where, adults believe, they should not go.

It is likely that we are able to create a more imaginal, a more relatable experience if the stories contain names and places and things that our kids see and hear in their lives, in their surroundings, in their homes. I do not believe that we should tell stories because they are from India. I would be unfair to myself if I searched for stories within the constraints of nationality. It would be wrong in more ways than one. For example, the stories by Somadeva in the 11th century collection -  Kathasaritsagara -  pre-date the concept of modern nations. It would be erroneous to think of them in the context of a national character. More appropriate would be to think of Indian folk tales as the stories having the imaginal field of these lands, the history of its myriad peoples.

We will be exploring folk tales from around the world, particularly from places that are not commonly used in classes. Stories from Arabia (particularly the Thousand and One Nights, whose roots can be traced to India among many other places), China, Japan, South America, and more. We may find that themes of many stories for children in different cultures of world are similar but the settings, with their particularities, are bewilderingly diverse. To me, the plot of the story is not always central, not the anchor. The landscape, the setting and characters are primary. They determine the emergence of a plot.

Let us think about the stories and fairy tales used in schools and homes. They have, among others, the following characteristics:

1. These stories are set in a timeless space but in lands that are not familiar to kids. A child notices and associates with the names of characters and places. Take for e.g., Hansel and Gretel by Brothers Grimm. Hansel, the brother and Gretel, the sister, are names that Indian kids are not familiar with. The places are nameless, like the forest which is enchanted containing nameless witches. Names are the first anchors into the world of the story for kids. Names of the characters, animals, towns, forests, beasts and fairies. The name being the first archetype of the thing in question. As Manguel says, "In the letters of the rose exists the rose and the entire Nile in the word Nile."

2. These stories are sanitised and de-brutalised. One is unlikely to hear of the witch in the candy house as being cannibalistic who intends to feed Hansel with the intention of eating him. Or that the step mother schemes to leave kids in the forest to fend for themselves. One wonders about the unbridled brutality in some of the folk tales that we routinely read to kids, having reached us through multiple iteration of cultural appropriations.

3. As a corollary to the above, these stories tend to end in unambiguous closure, likely with a moral lesson, and the victory of good over evil. Predictable tropes are used to create uni-dimensional good and bad characters. Whereas in the folk tales of yore, it is quite an effort to clearly tag good and evil characters.

4. Sensory scaffolds, particularly images, and now increasingly gaudy sounds and moving visuals, are reducing the opportunities of imagination for kids. A setting, a face, a mannerism, all given to kids, set in music made to entertain. Whereas the stories in their folk form (it would not be accurate call it "original" form) would be, firstly, oral and then written with minimal illustrations.

5. These stories have formed the archetypes of their own versions that followed and many variations in new stories. The fair folk and their lands, the danger lurking at the edge of the dark forest with elves and goblins, wolves and dragons, the emperor and the magician, justice and fortune, the world and death.

Through the Folk Tales Project at Northstar, we will attempt to collect and share folk and fairy tales from around the world, with the goal of using them in class. This would mean that we will have to add context and scaffolds through considerate editing and prudent addition of visual and auditory media.

We will share resources on this website.

If you would like to share resources, links and stories, please write to us at hello@northstar.edu.in.

Northstar Language Arts Program is one of the most exhaustive programs that we have ever designed. We have multiple sub-programs which form a continuum of language learning, from preschool to high school.

Below are some key points on we look at reading:

1. Overwhelming emphasis has been placed on reading, writing, spelling, and grammar, with little instructional time directed to building children's listening and speaking skills. This is a mistake.  
2. Oral language (listening and speaking) is the single most important intervention for learning languages.
3. A child's competence and familiarity with oral language is strongly correlated and predictive of the child's ability to read and write.
4. In oral language, receptive language development generally precedes expressive language.
5. Children need to hear new vocabulary used in meaningful contexts before they develop an understanding of that vocabulary
6. Children need opportunities to listen to narrative descriptions (in adult commentary, books read aloud, and so on) before they can be expected to produce narrative descriptions themselves, either orally or in writing.
7. The extent to which successful reading depends not only on decoding skills but also on knowledge and vocabulary, which, in the early years, must be gained mostly, if not wholly, through oral language.

As Non-native Language learners, learning English is, simultaneously, diffcult and rewarding. At Northstar, we want learners to be able to experience the language and all the beauty it offers.