India, July 12 -- If you think life in the mountains is all peace and romance, Bela Negi's The Tree With Eyes and Other Short Stories may change your mind. This collection of nine stories captures the breathtaking beauty of the hills while exploring the harsh realities of those who call them home. Rooted in Nature, the stories show how deeply the mountains shape their inhabitants' identities and destinies. In Where the Road Ends, Gulab, a shepherd and medicine man, finds his peaceful mountain life disrupted after descending to the foothills. Despite acknowledging Nature's destructive force, like Shekhar's deserted village in A Long Way From Home, where the entire settlement is abandoned because of floods, the people of the mountains fail to find a sense of belonging anywhere else. For Negi's characters, the mountains remain an irreplaceable home. What makes the collection compelling is its flawed, deeply human characters. Negi avoids idealising mountain life, instead portraying people with contradictions and imperfections. From Ganesh's entitlement in The Monkey Chaser to Amma's unconventional chaos in Amma's Keys these characters feel authentic and lived-in. Beyond landscapes, Negi examines social realities, particularly the struggles of women. Stories like Crazy Love and The Tree With Eyes reveal how gender expectations and exploitation restrict women's choices. Yet, Hishalu offers a different perspective through Dimpy, a young girl who refuses to remain trapped by her circumstances, created by her father. Through interconnected stories of migration, gender inequality, ecological change and belonging, Negi portrays the hills as living forces that shape and challenge the lives of its people. Title: The Tree With Eyes And Other Stories Author: Bela Negi Publisher: Westland Books Price: Rs.499...