The present book is a product of long standing informal research which involved listening to different people who were able to narrate stories, record them and rewrite them using simple language to provide access at large. The sources are numerous, grandparents, village elders, fellow travelers, students, colleagues and occasionally what was read at odd places. In fact, the collection here reflects a microcosm of several stories available in the world over. Going through the stories helps one realize how close the human civilization is that any tiny place we live in is indeed a piece of that world torn and transplanted.