Kevein Books and Reviews

The Happy Prince is a story of a statue and a Swallow bird. The Swallow bird is flying to reach Egypt where his friends are awaiting him on the Nile River. While flying continuously for much time, the Swallow feels tired and reaches a city where he thinks of taking some rest. He finds out one tall statue and goes there to sit between the legs. Drop after drop falls on him from above, he looks up in the sky but finds no cloud. The drops of water were the tears of the statue. Upon asking, the bird comes to know that the statue is of a happy prince who never saw sorrow in his life and when he died his people built a statue of him. It is a fine statue with gold leafs, sapphires in his eyes, and ruby in the hilt of the sword. The prince says that when he was alive he was kept away from sadness and worries and miseries of the world. He died without seeing any sorrow in his life. Well, now when he is standing in the middle of the city, he can see the pain of the people. The pr...

It is a story about courage, loss, adventure and tragedy. Prashant is a nineteen-year-old boy, who one day goes to Ersama – a coastal town 18 kilometers away from his village Kalikuda – to meet his friend. In the evening torrential rain and storm surrounds the town, the rain is so heavy, along with strong gales of wind, that water enters the homes of people and trees begin uprooting. Overall, life becomes tough; people are scared to the hell. To avoid water in the home Prashant and his friend’s family move on the roof of the home, as it was a brick and mortar home. In rain and wind and storm, they spend almost two days there, struggling for warmth and food, thanks to one coconut tree that is lying on their roof, which provided them food. From the roof Prashant sees the streets flooded and corpses of humans and animals and trees being afloat. The super cyclone has caused havoc all around. He is worried about his family members, though his mother had died seven years ago. The...

The Accidental Tourist by Bill Bryson is a short story that highlights the importance of having suave and elegant manners at the time of travelling. In this story, we see that the narrator almost flies over 100,000 miles every year because of his job’s nature. So, we can say that the narrator is an accidental tourist, though he doesn’t enjoy travelling but still he has to because of his job. However in his own words he says that he is sort of a confused man who often forgets the roads and gets into wrong alleys or gets trapped into self-locking doors. In this story, he takes us to some of his awry travel experiences where he did some crazy things, though unwittingly. Most of his experiences are based around airports or inside the flights. On one instant, while flying to England from Boston with family for Christmas, he forcibly opened the zip of his bag, as a result it broke down and all the stuff littered on the ground. This made him embarrassed and the people around him. ...

Teenage is a rebellious phase of a child’s life. At this time, children not only grow but also find difficulties in daily routines or for that matter the changes taking place in their life invariably. This story starts with when the narrator, a young school boy, leaves his junior school for a new high school. He loves his previous school so much that he hates attending his new school. He misses friends and teachers from there. Because of this change, he is upset with himself and thinks that he is a misfit in the new school. Will he be able to find new and good friends there? One day while doing homework, he notices wisps of smoke coming out of the ceiling. Before his mother and he can understand anything untoward, the home gets into the clutches of fire. The boy runs out calling for help. His mother comes out of the home with a metal box which consists of family photographs and other mementos of his late father. The fire spreads, the house is on the verge of destruction. ...

In the Kingdom of Fools by A.K. Ramanujan is a popular Kannada folk tale. The story is about a strange kingdom where its king and ministers act as fools profoundly. In comparison to other nearby kingdoms, their working methods and operations were child-like and foolish in nature. Once they decided to go against the phenomenal of day & night. They passed the order of calling day as night and vice versa. And people of the kingdom were forced to work at night and sleep during daylight. Once a guru and his greedy disciple arrived to the kingdom, they found it weird that in the daylight people were fast asleep and the streets were deserted. Also in the city, they found that everything cost same, be it food or clothing. They both enjoyed sumptuous food for some days together. Well, one day the guru took leave by saying that this is the kingdom of fools and anything can happen here. You cannot really trust fools. While the disciple, being greedy about food, did not heed his wo...

Can your advice change a beggar’s life? Well, this story – The Beggar by Anton Chekhov – is about a young man who by choice becomes a beggar but the good thing is that he comes out of it somehow. The story opens with the advocate Sergei in the market with his cook. A young beggar is asking for alms from him – the beggar is saying that he was a schoolteacher but lost his place there because of internal politics. Sergei focuses on the beggar and catches his lie. Sergei had met this beggar earlier and that time the beggar posed himself as a student. When confronted, the beggar confesses to his lie and says that people wouldn’t believe him that he was a singer in Russian Choir but expelled from there for drunkenness. Sergei offers him work in his wood shed. The beggar out of shame and fake pride takes up the work. Because of drunkenness, he is staggering and reluctant for work. Olga, the cook, takes him to the wood shed and handles him a billet of wood for chopping. After the w...

‘Iswaran the Storyteller’ is a short story written by R. K. Laxman. The story features two important characters: Mahendra and his cook Iswaran. Iswaran is an avid reader, thus he is also a great storyteller. He has a unique way of narrating incidents and anecdotes. Mahendra works for a supervising firm. He is a junior supervisor there. His job is to move from one construction site to another, like coal mining, railway brides, office buildings and so on. Recently, he has been told to shift to a site where a chemical company is to be built. Because of a moving job, from one site to another, Mahendra has used to the ways of life and expects no good form of luxury in his life. He lives in shacks or small huts, well above all this he has a fixed cook with him always, and he is none other than Iswaran. Iswaran is quite a talented person when it comes to finding vegetables and ingredients out of nowhere. Also, he is a wonderful cook. After Mahendra leaves for work, Iswaran cle...

Toto is a name of monkey. Grandfather finds it a pretty monkey which was getting bored in the custody of a tonga-driver. Toto was tied to a feeding-trough and there was something extra about it that it looked out of place to grandpa. He buys it from that tonga-driver at the price of five. Since we all know that grandma doesn’t like animals brought home by grandfather, thus this time he keeps the monkey in a closet attached to young Ruskin’s bedroom till grandma comes in a state of good mood. They tie Toto with a peg rigged in the wall.    After some hours when they return, they find the closest in mess, Toto has peeled off all the wallpapers and turned Ruskin’s blazer into shreds. Upon seeing this grandfather says that Toto is clever. Well, he is way clever beyond their anticipation. Next, Toto is transferred to servants’ quarters in a big cage. There he screamed and made noise all night. As a result none of the other animals, which were living amiably till n...

Johnsy and Sue meet six months previously and move to live in Greenwich Village of New York. The colony where they live is famous for artists’ accommodation because of good ambience and cheap rates, and they too are budding artists – painters. Before winter the trees in the village were fully green and high on fluttering. As the winter commences, the trees begin shedding leaves and around the same period the village falls in the grip of deadly disease – pneumonia. Johnsy is so terribly down with pneumonia that she becomes bedridden. The doctors have given up the hope of life in her. Despite this providence, Sue takes care of her and hopes for her full recovery. However, Johnsy has grown pessimistic – she realizes that her hopes of survival have numbered out. She is waiting to die. She often gazes outside at the ivy vine tree. She has built an assumption rather an obsession that she will die when the last leaf from the vine tree falls. Sue dismisses her fears but Johnsy is i...

The Lost Child is a riveting short story by Mulk Raj Anand. A little boy and his parents are on their way to a village fair on account of a spring fair. The alley leading to the fair is alive with a vivid combination of colours and people. The boy is happy and chirpy and walking between the big limbs of his father, between the long strides. As he can see there are toys in the shops lined along the way. He is captivated by the colourful toys of different sizes and shapes but in his observation he lags behind. So he runs ahead to be with his parents. When he expresses the desire to own one of the toys hanging from the shops, a cold stare from his father breaks his heart. Suddenly, to break his attention from the lingering toys, his mother tenderly shifts his attention to the swaying muster field, which seems to be full of golden ripples – moving to and fro. The boy enters the field and begins chasing butterflies, black bees and dragon flies. But soon he is called back. ...