Bachpan Diaries

Stories for Every Childhood

From lullabies and picture books to personal memories and nostalgic tales — stories that span every age of growing up in India.

The Last Diwali at the Old House

We did not know at the time that it would be the last Diwali in that house. These things are never announced in advance.

Bachpan Diaries Editorial Team Jun 10 · 3 min read

My Father's Radio

My father's radio was a Philips transistor — dark brown bakelite with a round dial and a little orange needle that moved when you turned the tuning knob. It sat on the shelf above the desk in his study, next to a bottle of Parker ink and a small brass Ganesh that had been given to him by his own father.

Bachpan Diaries Editorial Team Jun 9 · 3 min read

The Cricket Match on the Rooftop

The rules of rooftop cricket were complicated, specific, and entirely our own.

Bachpan Diaries Editorial Team Jun 8 · 2 min read

Summer Holidays at Nani Ghar

It was always the same ritual. School ended, report card was collected (quickly folded and placed face-down in the bag), and within a week the suitcases came out from under the bed — the big brown ones with the brass combination locks that nobody remembered the combination to, so we just kept them open.

Bachpan Diaries Editorial Team Jun 7 · 3 min read

The Blue Bicycle

The bicycle had been his father's before it was his — a sturdy Hero Ranger, painted blue, with a tiny rust spot near the left pedal that his father had never got around to fixing.

Bachpan Diaries Editorial Team Jun 6 · 2 min read

The Girl Who Collected Rain

Every year before the monsoon arrived, Meera would place her collection of empty glass bottles on the windowsill of her room — seven of them, each a different size, each saved from the kitchen over the months before.

Bachpan Diaries Editorial Team Jun 5 · 2 min read

Tenali Raman and the Cats

The palace of King Krishnadevaraya had a problem — rats. They were everywhere: in the granary, in the kitchens, even inside the royal turban room. The king offered a reward to anyone who could rid the palace of rats.

Bachpan Diaries Editorial Team Jun 4 · 2 min read

The Monkey and the Crocodile

On the banks of a wide, slow river, there grew a magnificent rose-apple tree. Its branches stretched over the water, dropping sweet red fruit into the current all summer long. In this tree lived a monkey — cheerful, quick, and always hungry for rose-apples.

Bachpan Diaries Editorial Team Jun 3 · 3 min read

The Mango Tree and the Sparrow

In a courtyard full of sunshine, there stood a tall mango tree. Its branches were wide and its leaves were thick and green, and in summer it gave the sweetest mangoes in all the neighbourhood.

Bachpan Diaries Editorial Team Jun 2 · 1 min read

The Little Star Who Was Afraid of the Dark

High up in the velvet sky, where the moon kept watch every night, there lived a tiny star named Tara.

Bachpan Diaries Editorial Team Jun 1 · 1 min read