About Kahani Nani
Welcome beneath the jacaranda tree
Every story begins with a question.
Why is the sky blue? Why do people make mistakes? Why should we be kind? What makes someone brave?
Children ask hundreds of questions. Some make us smile. Some make us think. And some deserve more than a quick answer.
That is where Kahani Nani began.
How Kahani Nani Came To Be
It started with a little boy and a very big question.
We were in the middle of a story — the kind passed down through generations, told by grandparents and parents and teachers and friends — when he stopped me.
“Did Ravan laugh with all ten heads? And if he had ten heads, was there a middle one?”
I laughed. And then I thought — this child is asking the right questions. And we have not always been telling the right stories.
Why should a duckling be called ugly? Why must the stepmother always be the villain? Why do the great gurus lose themselves to anger — and why do we call that greatness? Why did Ganesha’s story have to begin with loss, when the real story was always about love?
The wisdom in these stories was always perfect. The wrapping has not aged well.
So Kahani Nani was born. Ancient stories retold with more love and less violence. The lessons kept. The fear removed. The wonder preserved.
For children hearing these stories for the first time. For adults who want to hear them properly at last.
Meet Nani
Nani has a story for everything.
She is warm, unhurried, and almost always right — though she would never say so herself. Her kitchen always smells like something wonderful. Her door is always open. And there is always a floor cushion waiting for whoever needs to sit down and think.
She does not always give answers. She gives stories. And somehow the answers arrive on their own.
Beneath the jacaranda tree in her Sydney backyard, Nani shares tales filled with courage, kindness, wisdom and wonder. She has been waiting to tell you something.
Meet Krish
Krish is seven years old. He has the kind of curly hair that has never once done what it was told. And hiding inside those curls — curly questions. Lots of them.
He asks why before he asks how. He notices the things adults stopped noticing a long time ago. He carries a small wooden flute everywhere he goes. No one quite knows where he learned to play it. But when he does — everyone stops to listen.
Krish could be any child. Your son. Your daughter. A niece, a nephew. Or maybe, just maybe, you — thirty years ago.
Every question he asks leads to an adventure. And every adventure begins with curiosity.
Meet Punklone
Punklone is a small Indian palm squirrel who lives in Nani’s jacaranda tree and has very strong opinions about everything.
He is always the first to have an answer. He is occasionally right. He is never, ever quiet about either.
He appears when you least expect him. He causes chaos with complete confidence. And somehow, in the middle of all that chaos, something true tends to emerge.
Nani has not confirmed whether he is her most important advisor. Punklone has already decided that she has.
What You Will Find Here
At Kahani Nani you will find stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata, Panchatantra tales and animal fables, stories of Krishna and Ganesha, and folktales from across India and beyond. Every story carries a gentle lesson about kindness, courage, honesty, friendship or wonder — told with warmth, imagination, and a squirrel who always has something to add.
No violence. No fear. Just wisdom wrapped in story, the way it was always meant to be told.
Our Hope
We hope these stories find their way into bedtime routines, classroom conversations, and long car rides where someone asks a question nobody expected.
We hope they remind children that curiosity is a superpower. That asking why is never the wrong thing to do. That the best stories are not the ones that end — they are the ones that stay with you.
Most of all we hope that somewhere, a child hears one of these stories and stops to ask a question nobody has thought to ask before.
That is exactly how Kahani Nani began.
So come and sit beneath the jacaranda tree.
Nani is waiting. Krish has another question. Punklone has already decided he knows the answer. And there is always a story.