Hello hello lovely people! Hope you’re well! Do you have a few special children’s books in your life that you can never outgrow, no matter how old you are? That kind is just so special, right? If you’re a kid, you can read them when you’re older and laugh at the silly things you laughed at when you were a younger kid and when you’re generally older, I mean wiser 😁😁😇😇😇💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻, you just laugh at all the things you missed reading in the book when you were a younger and busier adult :-) The Little Miss and Mr Men series by Roger Hargreaves is one such set of books for me 😊😊😊😊 Today’s edition has four episodes containing stories ranging from the adventures of Little Miss Splendid and LIttle Miss Neat to the tales of Mr Clever and the Mr Noisy and more! Roger Hargreaves was a British author and illustrator who wrote and illustrated with bold colours and a characteristic style, the Mr Men series in 1971 followed by the Little Miss series in 1981. The stories are loved by little and big humans alike and I hope you will enjoy them too! Some have been narrated by me and some of course by my lovely CO-host, my very own creation, my little Ani who is the reason I started recording all these stories in the first place 💪🏻💪🏻🙏🏼🙏🏼🖊🖊❣️❣️❣️❣️🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼🎧🎧🎧🎤🎤🎤 With much love and warmest wishes 🙏🏼🤗❤️🌺🗒🗒🗒📚📚📚📚📖📖🖊🖊

Like all of us, my childhood too was filled with stories. My earliest recollections are of my beautiful Mama telling me stories at bed time or even meal times, in her lustrous voice. My love for stories only grew steadily from then on. I devoured books outside of school. Strangely, although Mama was a languages teacher, she never forced me to read Hindi literature so it was only in school that i was introduced to that world. One of my first Hindi that will forever remain etched in my memory and be an unshakeable part of my childhood is this story - Gillu. Written simply, majestically and beautifully by the inimitable Mahadevi Verma, one of the mat powered figures in Hindi literature at the time, Gillu is the story of a little squirrel she finds just as much as it finds her. I have read the story in Hindi so I hope that adults, parents, family and friends that understand the language can share the gist of the story with littluns. I do hope you enjoy hearing it just as much as I did reading it. Much love x

I thought it would be appropriate to call it a night with this beautiful story, Faraway Places from Room of Many Colours. Faraway Places describes the strong desire in a young boy Anil to travel great distances to faraway ports in a steamer. At a time when we are confined to our homes (foe the greater and smaller good I know), this story of initial disappointment to be quickly replaced with hope, makes me smile even though it might be wistfully for now. And if that isn’t reason enough to listen to it, then perhaps me doing a very lame Scottish accent and Anikka a much better one, is all you needed to hear to believe that all good things are coming and that it’s good to smile 😬😬😬🙏🏼🙏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🤗🤗 Happy listening, I wish you good health and happiness! 🙏🏼🙏🏼🌈🌈😍😍

And yes, no session can be complete without a Ruskin Bond story so before I retire for the night, I give you a double dose of one of my favourite authors of all time - no doubt, you’ve gathered that if you’ve been listening to my stories on this podcast :-)) 🤗🤗👏🏼👏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🌈🌈😍😍 🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏽‍♀️ I love that Ruskin Bond’s writing is simple yet so evocative, transporting you to where ever he wishes you to be with ease and endearment. Grandfather’s Many Faces is fun and so enjoyable! As always, our readings are peppered with giggles and chatter, so I hope you’ll have a great time listening Much love and hugs 🌈🌈😍🥰🥰

And this after another day of unexpected April sunshine which meant a brilliant day in the garden eating way too much, dancing away to great beats and much excitement leading to obviously, a late night again :-)) Anikka reads Punishment or Reward in her poshest accent as I, as always, like Mums do, correct her pronunciation of a few words 🤣🤣🤣🥰🥰🥰💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼 I then follow that up with Egg in the Pond. I hope you enjoy listening to these stories just as much as we did reading them 🤣🤣 🤗💕🌈🌈💕🙏🏼

Hiya peeps, how are we doing today? We were afflicted by a massive bout of the giggles while reading this session so hope you giggle along with us as you hear today’s 3 stories - The Mango Seed, Like Father Like Daughter and The Other Guest. Enjoy and happy listening 🤣🤣 🌈🌈💕🙏🏼

Hello hello you lovely people :-)) We are back from flashback to current times when it was a really hot Sunday only a couple of weekends back - do you remember that warm Sunday? I’m sure you had a cracking BBQ at home and enjoyed yourself thoroughly 🌈🌈🎼🎼🎸🎸🎤🎤🎂🎂🍤🍤🥟🥟🌮🌮🌮🍗🥓🥓🥖🥖🍹🍹 Today’s episode has another 4 stories that I’m sure you will enjoy heaps - The Shortcut, The Blind People, The Real Thief and The King or the Cabbage. Birbal was called one of the 9 gems of Akbar’s court - you can see why, can’t you? :-))) Happy listening xx There’s a lot to be learnt about the art of negotiation here as Anikka reminds me its the ‘just’ thing to do to read a 4th story 🤣🤣 🌈🌈💕🙏🏼

Hola there, kids and adults :-)) I hope you’ve all been well and making the most of this inexplicable time. I hope you’ve been reading lots and expanding your horizons 🙏🤗 Today’s episode has been read entirely by my daughter who was not quite 8 then (you see I’ve been collecting and recording these stories for years so not all are entirely recent which you might be able to tell by her voice 🥰🥰) - you might have a little trouble hearing her as she doesn’t quite holler like her Mum but I know you will absolutely love the 4 stories which are - The Farmer and the Well, Finding Birbal, The Innocent Gardener and The Lower and the Noble. Let me know which was your favourite of these 4! Happy listening xx🌈🌈💕🙏🏼

If you haven’t yet realised, you soon will, that I am a huuuuugggggeeeeee fan of Ruskin Bond. I love the simplicity of his writing and I love how he can connect almost instantaneously with the reader at so many levels! Today’s story is one that I will cherish forever - Ani and I had such a blast reading it together! I cracked lame jokes, got the pronunciation of names wrong and we both giggled without a care in the world! These are the kind of memories I wish for us all! 🌈🌈🌈💕💕🙏🏼🙏🏼🤗🤗🤩🤩🤩🤩🐷🐷🐷🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏽‍♀️ I hope you can make the best of your time in quarantine if you are lucky enough to be able to do that and read lots of books. If you’re exhausted, may I suggest you put this on and get a little time by yourself even if it’s just cuddling with the littluns while you both have a mindless laugh 🤩🤩🤩🤪🤪😬😬😬💥💥🍭🍭🍭😆😆😆 I really do hope both adults and kids will have heaps of fun listening to this story! Much love and hugs 🌈🌈😍🥰🥰

One of my absolutely favouritest authors in the world, Ruskin Bond charms with his simple and lucid writing. His stories are endearing and heart warming, often laugh out loud funny and sometimes slightly scary but they never cease to keep the reader engaged making him or her fall more in love with the art of wordsmithery. In my eyes, he’s an absolute genius which is why I read sooooo many of his stories with Ani. Today’s two are different genres but I hope they will both make your heart happy. I hope you enjoy listening! Cheerio! Xx