Does saving your family’s honour trump personal happiness? Will the god be appeased if you overfeed him and not help the needy? Will the law protect the stray dog that tears an eight-year-old into shreds? Is a deceased manual scavenger just another statistic who risks his life for a cleaner future? In the voice of the common man, Bobby Sachdeva questions our everyday practices in an unorthodox manner in Stories of Us. From Rishi to Parth and Lata to Rajnath, the hard-hitting and honest narratives are sure to inspire the common person to rethink the values long etched in our belief system.

Selections and activities to help you improve your understanding and mastery of English. Listen to the voice that comes through in the reading selections. Look at the ways the authors express emotion, convey ideas, and paint pictures with words. Then think about your own experience. Write about what you know and feel.

Offering new opportunities to think and write critically about literature, this classic anthology continues to provide a rich selection of stories, poems, plays, and essays in a flexible arrangement that invites students to explore the essential themes of humanity.

Bruce Beiderwell and Jeff Wheeler know that studying literature can be intimidating because of the specialized terminology and categorization. Rather than focusing first on terms or definitions, THE LITERARY EXPERIENCE, ESSENTIAL EDITION helps you develop the skills that make literature accessible, organizing the book and beginning each discussion by asking the same questions that students really ask themselves when they read a text, questions like "What is happening here?" or "Is there some other story that we're supposed to know?" With THE LITERARY EXPERIENCE, ESSENTIAL EDITION you will learn all of the literary terms you need to share your experience while you engage in the poems, stories, and plays themselves.