India is traditionally known to be a land of storytellers. There have been scores of Indian storytellers who have charmed the audience through short story compilations, novels, and in the current era through radio shows and podcasts. No matter how easy it appears, it is one of the toughest tasks to conceive and tell a riveting and engaging story. Thanks to some noted new-age storytellers such as Neelesh Misra and Sudhandhu Rai, they have added values to the age old tradition with their expertise as well as technology. Here we enlist two engaging and heart-touching stories by two of the most popular and prominent new-age storytellers in the country.

Doctor Didi by Sudhanshu Rai: The protagonist of the story is young boy named Sonu, who is the son of a rickshaw puller but aims to become a doctor some day. Determined to crack the medical entrance examination, Sonu fights against all odds to remain firm on his path. He remains undeterred even when he doesn't get a proper meal. Sonu works as a labourer and a rickshaw puller during the daytime and finds a lighted place near a roadside to study during the night. On one of such nights, his attention is diverted by a lady who enquires him as to what he does sitting outside the city university gate every night. When Sonu tells her his story, she is mighty impressed and decides to teach him for the entrance examination. Thanks to his 'Doctor Didi', Sonu goes on to perform well in his exams but encounters the shock of his life when he tries to meet her at the university hostel. What he comes across is a mystery that bewilders him.



Ek Cup Coffee by Neelesh Misra: The story is about a school-going girl named Saumya. She is the daughter of a middle class single mother Ratna, who struggles to make ends meet after separation from her husband. Even as Ratna does not earn much, she gets her daughter admitted to the best convent school in the town to ensure that Saumya gets the best possible education. She borrowed money from wherever she could to somehow pay the first installment of the fee, but that wasn't enough to make Saumya feel welcome at her new school. On her first day, she was mocked by her seniors for not having travelled in a flight and got the shock of her life when she discovered that one cup of coffee costs Rs 80 at a nearby food joint visited by most of her schoolmates. The story follows Saumya's journey of evolving as a person and eventually making a place for herself in the new school.