Samuel DenHartog's Blog: The Road to 1,440 - Posts Tagged "india"

There’s a particular kind of story that lives in the high places of the world. You can feel it in the way a pine leans into the fog or how a narrow path curves out of view like it knows something you don’t. The hills around Simla are full of those stories. Some are wise, some are strange, and some carry the weight of centuries in just a few short lines. These tales don’t need grand palaces or dragons to capture your attention. They speak in the voices of animals, villagers, spirits, and tricksters, all bound by the rhythms of life in the mountains.

This book is a collection of those stories, retold in a way that brings out their wit, mystery, and enduring charm. There’s the jackal who outwits a partridge, the prince born with the moon on his forehead, and the faithful dog who faces the gods. Each tale comes from the oral traditions of the Simla region, passed down by word of mouth and shaped by the people who told them over generations. Some are clever, others haunting, and a few might even leave you wondering whether that rustle in the trees is just the wind after all.

These stories don’t rely on heavy moral lessons. Instead, they offer glimpses into how people once made sense of the world around them. A snake might hold a secret. A foolish king might lose everything to a humble villager. Luck shifts. Wisdom hides in unexpected places. Even in the most magical turns, the tales stay close to the soil, grounded in daily life, the seasons, and the quiet authority of nature.

You won’t find sweeping epics here or endless genealogies. What you’ll find is something older and maybe more enduring: a kind of storytelling that is both practical and poetic, rooted in the land and the lives of those who know it best. That spirit is what I’ve tried to preserve in “Fables from Simla.”

When I first began shaping this story, I knew it wouldn’t be about crowns or cleverness alone. It would be about what someone gives up without knowing what they will get in return, and how real love rarely arrives with trumpets. I set it in a world brushed with the wonder of old stories, vanishing cities, rose-lit towers, sea-bound palaces, but gave it a heart that beats through silence and sacrifice. There are echoes of "One Thousand and One Nights" here, but this tale travels its own path.

At its center stands Princess Nouronnihar, raised in silk and ceremony within the Jasmine Court, yet quietly restless beneath it all. When three foreign princes come from distant lands, Persia, Arabia, and the Maghreb, the Sultan refuses to choose among them by lineage or wealth. Instead, he sends them outward, each to find something truly rare. Their quests stretch across kingdoms and beliefs, each prince tested not just by what he finds, but by who he becomes in the finding.

The magic in this story is unmistakable: a carpet that can fly, a telescope that peers across continents, an apple whose breath can heal. But those are not what linger. What matters more is the way each gift reflects its bearer, and the moment when these rivals must act together, not to win, but to save. When a vengeful genie steals the princess away, everything shifts. The rescue depends not on power, but on trust and loss and timing that cannot be undone.

At its heart, this book is about love with choice at its core. Not a contest to be won, but a gift to be offered. I hope readers will find wonder in the journey and perhaps see a little of themselves in the characters who travel so far, not just to earn love, but to understand it. That is the soul of "Three Princes, One Heart."

When I set out to retell the journey of Arjuna, I knew I wanted to capture both the grandeur and the humanity that make him one of the most unforgettable figures in ancient storytelling. His life is not just about battles and weapons, but about the questions he faces in his heart. Through his victories and his struggles, he speaks to anyone who has ever had to make a hard choice between duty and desire.

This book carries readers across the sweep of kingdoms, forests, and battlefields, showing Arjuna in his full complexity. You will meet him as a young warrior, eager and determined, and follow him into exile where he gains wisdom and divine weapons that shape his destiny. The story does not shy away from his doubts, for it is in his moment of hesitation that the teachings of Krishna reveal themselves in their greatest power.

Writing this journey gave me the chance to bring together the richness of mythology with the intimate struggles of a single man. Arjuna is a hero touched by the divine, yet his story is also deeply human. He feels love, grief, fear, and hope, making his arc as meaningful today as it was thousands of years ago. Readers will walk beside him, seeing both the weight of destiny and the flicker of choice in every step he takes.

"Arjuna of the Mahabharata" is an invitation to step into an ancient world alive with gods and warriors, to hear the clash of weapons and the whisper of eternal truths, and to witness a hero’s journey that still speaks to the human heart. I hope readers will find themselves both inspired and moved as they discover his story.