Thakurda (the lord of the house)

“Thakurda” is a comic masterpiece by Tagore. “Thakurda” is a descendant of a noble aristocratic family, but due to unfortunate reasons the family lost its country seat years ago. After settling in Calcutta Thakurda started bragging about his aristocratic lineage to his friends, neighbours and relatives. His excessive storytelling nature has annoyed a lot of people including the narrator himself. Read the short story to know further how the narrator and his friends play a trick on Thakurda and how it personally affects the narrator J

The mystery of Marie Roget: Edgar Allan Poe

The dead body of  a perfume shop employee Marie Roget is discovered in banks of Seine river. The newspaper has developed a keen interest in this case and so is detective C. Auguste Dupin (fictional detective of Poe).

Kabuliwala ( The Seller from Kabul): Rabindranath Tagore

Kabuliwala is one of the Great Classic short story written by Rabindranth Tagore in his famous anthology Golpoguccha. Rahamat a seller in Kabul arrives at Calcutta leaving his little daughter in Kabul. In Kolkata he encounters with a little girl Mini, with  whom he finds the resemblance of her daughter. Initially Mini was scared to friend with Rahamat but finally they develop a strong bond for each other. Meanwhile Rahamat is send to prison for stabbing a man in the heat of anger. After some years when Rahmat returns from the prison and arrives at the door of Mini's house he founds that it is the day when Mini is getting married.

                                 

Roald Dahl: The Hitch-hiker

The Narrator of the story while driving his BMW picks a Hitch-hiker from the highway. While driving the narrator notices the self-contradictory nature of the hiker, which makes the narrator more inquisitive. The Hitch- hiker is annoyed by the inquisitive nature and he ascerts that he do not like questioning while driving. Meanwhile they both end up in a challenge of driving the car at 120 km/h which ends with a threat of life sentence and petty fine from a police officer. At the end the narrator discovers that the hiker can move his finger swiftly at a great speed when he takes a cigarette to his mouth.The hiker reveals that throughout the driving journey he had pickpocketed various things from the narrator which he returns to the narrator to  demonstrate an example of his skill. He prefers to be called as an fingersmith than a pickpocket because he finds the latter to be a vulgar word.

Overcoat: Nikolai Gogol

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The story revolves around a dedicated government clerk Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin, who is often teased by the young people in his office for his threadbare overcoat. During this period his zeal for work is replaced by the excitement to buy a new overcoat. He discusses with his tailor Petrovich to develop a new overcoat with finest material and finally his new overcoat becomes the latest talk of the office. One day on returning home from a party two ruffians kick him and take away his new overcoat. Disappointed by the loss Akaky urges the authority and a high rank general to help him find his overcoat, but his all attempts go in vain when he was rebuked by the high ranked general for bringing such a trivial issue to him. After the death of Akaky his ghost is seen in many places, which scares people and takes their overcoats. The instances finally stop when Akaky's ghost finally scare and take away the overcoat of the same high ranked general.

Sleepy Hollow: Washington Irving

The Ransom of Red chief: O.Henry

Two thieves Sam and Bill plans to kidnap the son of a wealthy Alabaman Ebenzer Dorset, but there plan unravels when they discovers that the boy is a complete menance.It is a comic short story by O.Henry which pioneered this particular genre in short stories.