Once there was a storyteller who was out of work. He didn't know how it had happened - but he no longer had anyone to tell his stories to…
But luckily for Kahani Bhai (also called Bhai K), he finds the best audience in the world - the winning team of friends, Nasira, Gopal, Akbari, Veer, Dulari and Ram. And like magic, or like the kahaniwala he really is, all the old stories crowding Bhai K's mind, all the happy, clever and funny faces - of Tenali Raman, Naseeruddin Hodja, Gopal Bhar, Birbal - change into people he knows. Knows as well as the children sitting around him, in the city he lives in, near the villages and towns he has seen with his own eyes.
Ten stories of the different kinds of people the winning team meet as they get into the stories, from Ramu the Boy Wonder to the hill-moving Hodja to the bald babus of Krishnapur to Nasser the Ferryboy. And while the children find much to puzzle them or make them sad, they always find laughter. Laughter, which can never be banned. They find laughter, new friends, and cause for celebration, because there are so many different people and stories in their India.
From Reviews
"The Winning Team should be translated in all our languages and made compulsory reading
for boys and girls in schools."
Khushwant Singh, in his column "With Malice Towards One and All"
"Vigorous language, humour and colourful illustrations… These are stories which will not
only provoke laughter and sadness but also get children thinking about the times we live in."
Hindu
"Githa Hariharan has achieved what many writers strive for - she has rewritten the past
in a manner that makes it more accessible… The striking illustrations for the stories by
Taposhi Ghoshal are in themselves a treat."
The Tribune
