The name’s Bond -Madhubani




The sun had set in the western sky leaving streaks of crimson mingled with a bluish hue. The cool autumn breeze soothed our weary minds as we settled down to talk about the bookworm’s favorite Bond – Ruskin Bond. It is a name that rings a bell with almost every youngster in India starting from arguably his most popular book ‘The Room on the Roof’ to his short stories like ‘Tiger in the tunnel’ which are part of the English curriculum in most schools. With evening falling gently over our university campus putting nature at its most sublime beauty, what could be a better time to delve into the works of this master storyteller?  

 One of India’s most beloved writers, Ruskin Bond, an Englishman by descent, was born in Kasauli, India. A large part of his childhood was spent in Dehradun till, as a youth, he traveled to the Chanel Islands and London. Once he returned to India, he never left the country again. His deep love for this country is a big part of many of his works. His identification as an Indian is so deep-rooted that in one of the chapters of the book ‘Our trees still grow in Dehra’, which comprises an extract from his own childhood, he refers to a British man as ‘Sahib’ (a term used by natives to refer to English men in colonial India) in spite of being British himself.

Bond’s works are love-letters to nature. More often than not, the intricacies of day and night, the change of seasons on the mountain slopes and the wind rustling through tree leaves form an integral part of his stories. We discussed one of his more recent publications – ‘A Book of Simple Living – Brief Notes from the Hills’- which is a perfect example of Bond’s deep connection with nature.

Ruskin Bond has been a wizard of myriad genres. Be it his short stories like ‘Eyes of the cat’ which mingle horror with fantasy or his little incomplete notes from his life in the mountains or fond recollections from his childhood in Dehradun – he makes the reader become one with the emotions of the characters. Some of his works like ‘A flight of pigeons’ and ‘Susanna’s seven husbands’ have been made into films. He continues to live in Mussoorie, India, and regularly meets his fans there.

Good-reads:
·        The Room on the Roof
·        A book of Simple Living-Brief Notes from the Hills
·        A flight of pigeons
·        Our trees still grow in Dehra
·        Panther’s Moon and other stories

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