My dream of being a published author was fulfilled in 2020 when I got the chance to write a short story for the children’s book Birds and Beasts, the second installment of a book series published by DK. The series showcases a selection of Indian folktales being retold for the modern reader, drawing inspiration from classic Indian texts and oral and tribal folklore.

With an aim to bring children closer to the magical wisdom of the often underrepresented Jammu and Kashmir, I dug into old publications about the region until I found an archived copy of Folk-Tales of Kashmir by James Hinton Knowles from the 19th century. In the book, I read Knowles’ collection of tribal folktales from the region with annotations about the context, and sometimes even differing versions of the same plot based on who was telling the story.

A story about a seven-legged beast caught my attention and I set myself to the task of making the text more concise and reimagining the story to make it more readable, and relatable for our current target audience.

To read the full story, and many others like it, grab your copy on Amazon.