The Tales Pensieve

The most beautiful and purest of relationships that humans indulge in all through their lives is Friendship. The most unconditional one too. While it is extremely beautiful in real, books romanticise it even more. Stories bring out the multiple layers that this heartfelt relationship brings along and allows the reader experience many friendships from the comforts of his couch. On Friendship Day, today, we bring for you 10 stories played out in India that capture the essence of Friendship truly. Take a peek, how many do you have in your collection?

1. The Room on the Roof by Ruskin Bond

Bond wrote this when he was 17 and what a masterpiece! Valid and entertaining even today.

Rusty, a sixteen-year-old Anglo-Indian boy, is orphaned and has to live with his English guardian in the claustrophobic European part in Dehra Dun. Unhappy with the strict ways of his guardian, Rusty runs away from home to live with his Indian friends. Plunging for the first time into the dream-bright world of the bazaar, Hindu festivals and other aspects of Indian life, Rusty is enchanted and is lost forever to the prim proprieties of the European community.

If you don’t have it adorning your shelves, BUY IT HERE

2. Five point something by Chetan Bhagat

The book that changed the modern Indian’s reading habits.

The plot rotates around 3 friends Hari, Ryan and Alok at IIT. Their companionship is strengthened into a close bond during their years at IIT, experiencing extreme hardships enduring the tough competitions. Three of them have high self-expectations of being at the top in their class and graduate out of the Institution with flying colours. As opposed to their expectations, the results and scores fall beyond their imagination. Hari has by this time fallen for his professor’s daughter. While Alok and Ryan never get along with each other. At IIT, the 3 of them have to bear the skeptical professors, stressful study materials and assignments, burden of limitless examinations and a stern academic timetable. The story focuses on their on-the-brink survival in the IITs and the unending struggle with the age-old education system of India. Their strength? Their volatile but steady friendship.

If you don’t have it adorning your shelves, BUY IT HERE

3. A Fine Balance By Rohinton Mistry

Set in mid-1970s India, A Fine Balance is a subtle and compelling narrative about four unlikely characters who come together in circumstances no one could have foreseen soon after the government declares a ‘State of Internal Emergency’. It is a breathtaking achievement: panoramic yet humane, intensely political yet rich with local delight; and, above all, compulsively readable. Thriving on the friendship forged among the four is the backbone of this classic.

If you don’t have it adorning your shelves, BUY IT HERE

 

4. Thick as Thieves: Tales of friendship by Ruskin Bond

Somewhere in life there must be someone to take your hand and share the torrid day. Without the touch of friendship there is no life and we must fade away. Discover a hidden pool with three young boys, laugh out loud as a little mouse makes demands on a lonely writer, follow the mischievous ‘four feathers’ as they discover a baby lost in the hills and witness the bond between a tiger and his master. Some stories will make you smile, some will bring tears to your eyes

Some may make your heart skip a beat but all of them will renew your faith in the power of friendship.

If you don’t have it adorning your shelves, BUY IT HERE

5. Swami & Friends by RK Narayan

The setting is of British India, in a fictional town named Malgudi. Swami is a ten-year old boy who studies at a mission school. He lives with his parents, younger brother and grandmother. He has a set of friends in two schools that he gets removed from. Events lead Swami to leave his house and go on a run. He is drawn heavily towards the unrest that is prevalent everywhere in India, but he fails to understand the cause. What happens with Swami? Will he be able to get back home safely? In this Narayan successfully creates a child’s perspective about the adult world and takes the reader along on the ride.

A story of friendship and how it defines us.

If you don’t have it adorning your shelves, BUY IT HERE

6. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, one solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific.The crew of the surviving vessel consists of a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan, a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger and Pi – a 16-year-old Indian boy.The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary pieces of literary fiction of recent years. Life of Pi is a transformative novel, a dazzling work of imagination that will delight and astound readers in equal measure. It is a triumph of storytelling and a tale that will, as one character puts it, make you believe in God.

It is a story of unconventional friendships and a strange journey.

If you don’t have it adorning your shelves, BUY IT HERE

7. 3 Mistakes of My Life by Chetan Bhagat

Based on cricket, business and religion, the novel is set against the backdrop of beautiful city Ahmedabad. Revolving around three young Indian boys Omi, Ishaan and Govind, the book goes on to narrate how the three are trying their best to make ends meet in the city.

Govind dreams to be a successful businessperson, while his friend Ishaan loves cricket and with the help of Omi and his priest parents, they set up their first venture – a sports accessories’ shop in a rented place outside the temple premises. Mostly revolving around these three young fellows, the novel has almost everything that youngsters in India can relate to; from budding love story and betrayal to death, riots and suicide, the book touches upon a wide range of emotions and common perceptions in India.

This is the story of friendship and how it survives against the treachery of the grown up, adult life pressures.

If you don’t have it adorning your shelves, BUY IT HERE

8. Chaddi Buddies by Oswald Pereira 

Hill Mansion wasn’t really a mansion; it was just a ramshackle hut on a small hill. But for Robert Pereira, it was better than any place he had seen in his village Golvada. His chaddi buddies Anand and Baloo lived there with their elder brother Dattya – his hero and the village cricket team captain. Robert had named their hut, ‘Hill Mansion’, moved by love for his buddies. It didn’t matter to him that they were the sons of a domestic help.
Robert loved Hill Mansion more than his own modern house, because the poor but strong residents of Hill Mansion had given him the courage to live and fight, bestowing on him the pet name Samson. On the other hand, his siblings and village bullies made fun of his clumsiness and weakness, and nicknamed him Pondya – an indolent, feeble fellow.
Will his love for his buddies stand the test of time and social barriers as he grows up? Chaddi Buddies is a tender story of friendship, love and brotherhood, loosely based on the author’s childhood, which will kindle sweet memories as you read on.

If you don’t have it adorning your shelves, BUY IT HERE

9. The Speaking Ghost of Rajpur by Priyonkar Dasgupta

It is the early 1990’s – the ‘picturesque’ small-town of Rajpur is in full summer bloom and there is a definite sense of mystery in the air. Amidst its scenic setting each year a group of boys band together to spend their summer vacations – going cycling to far-off forests, sharing books, discussing everything under the sky and ogling at girls… But as youth would have it, their curious minds are more inclined to seek adventure and (hopefully!) uncover some mysterious affair. However, unlike their previous vain attempts, this time certain unusual events and the sudden appearance of a curious case of a ghost in their midst seem to hold the promise of some real adventure. In the pages of The Speaking Ghost of Rajpur rest assured that you will soon be whisked off and plunged into a headlong journey of adventure and romance of your own – on a path of discovery of friendship and brotherhood, of life and love – and, who knows, you might even encounter the Speaking Ghost itself!

If you don’t have it adorning your shelves, BUY IT HERE

10. A Little Book of Friendship by Ruskin Bond

There is no greater desert or wilderness than to be without true friends.’ In this beautiful collection, Ruskin Bond puts together his favourite sayings on friends and friendship. From his own observations, recorded over the years in his diaries, to famous sayings by celebrated writers, poets and philosophers, this is a delightful compilation of thoughts on love, friendship and family. Told with the heartwarming simplicity that characterizes Ruskin Bond, this book, much like a good friend, is one you can turn to at any time, for comfort and company.

If you don’t have it adorning your shelves, BUY IT HERE

These are our 10 picks to celebrate Friendship. Tell us your favourites. We would definitely love some recos.