Ruskin Bond

Have you gone through the writings of Ruskin Bond, his novellas, essays, poetry, short stories, long stories and his autobiographies. I have studied a story "The Kite Maker" written by Mr. Ruskin Bond in my intermediate English prose book. This single story had made a deep impact on my mind, that I have became a great fan of him. 

Some of stories written by him have became a legend. I remember my childhood days, when my elder sister used to tell us the horror stories during night. My elder sister used to study in "Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya" and she got only two months in a whole year which she spend with us, that is summer vacation. Each year, we used to wait for our summer vacation desperately. At that time I was only six or seven year old but listening those horror stories made us too frightened that we glued to our bed under the blanket. In those days, we didn't think about the writer of these stories, because that was not as important as the stories for us. We imagined the words of stories in our mind in the form of a film and horrified. One of the remarkable story was "A Face in the Dark" written by Mr. Bond. In my childhood days, my sister had told us this same story without telling us the name and title of story writer. 
It is only after, I has brought the "Omnibus- The dust on the Mountains" a story collection book written by Mr. Bond, I found this story, 'A Face in the Dark'. And I tell you, 'what a pleasure full experience that was;;'. The stories, which we had listened in Hindi by my sister such a long time ago, was actually written by Mr. Bond. These horror story had inculcated in my mind to such extent as it is as fresh as even today.

Frankly speaking, Mr. Bond is a short story writer, but he is a great poet too. He has written a number of sweet rhymes and poems. One of which is-

  "As I walked home last night

I saw a lone fox dancing

In the cold moonlight.

I stood and watched. Then

Took the low road, knowing

The night was his by right.

Sometimes, when words ring true,

I'm like a lone fox dancing

   In the morning dew."           

(From-'From Small Beginings')

The simplicity of Mr. Bond's writing touches every one's heart. In addition to this the nature plays an essential role in his writing. He has accepted in one of his essays, "If anybody ask me to choose and write some lines between the 'Taj Mahal' or the red rose, I would prefer red rose to Taj." This statement is further confirmed by one more of his little poems-

"I wonder where the green grass went?
All buried under new cement.
I wonder where the birds have flown?
They've gone to find another home.
I wonder where the footpath's gone?
Right underneath your car, my son.
I wonder where the old folks go?
The nursing home will surely know.
What grows so fast before my eyes?
A garbage dump, a million flies.
Is this the place you celebrate?
In prose you made it sound so great;
It was...before I knew it's fate."

(From-'A Town Called Dehra')

Mr. Bond have a great feeling of love about every things in his heart. He told us the very complicated things about life in simplest of his words.

"Remember the long ago when we lay together

In a pain of tenderness and counted

Our dreams: long summer afternoons

When the whistling-thrush released

A deep sweet secret on the trembling air;

Blackbird on the wing, bird of the forest shadows,

Black rose in the long ago summer,

This was your song:

It isn't time that's passing by,

It is you and I."

(From-'Love is a Sad Song)'

Sometimes he became philosopher and writes some mysterious lines-

"We three,

We're not a crowd;

We are not even company-

My echo,

My shadow,

And me..."

(From-'Whistling in the Dark')

Really he is a great contemporary writer of modern India. I have read approximately his whole stories, essays and novellas. Some of my most favourite stories are, 'The Eyes Have It', 'The Night Train at Deoli', 'The Haunted Bicycle', 'Time Stops at Shamli', 'Going Home', 'The Most Potent Medicine of All', 'The Kite Maker', 'The Prospect of Flowers', 'A Face in the Dark', 'The Last Time I Saw Delhi', 'Whispering In the Dark', 'Love is a Sad Song', 'Reunion at Regal', 'When You Can't Climb Trees Anymore' and 'A Love of Long Ago' etc. The writing of Mr. Bond is so much vast and large, that one can do Ph.D. over his writings. He has also written a number of novellas, and my most favourite novel by him is- "The Room On The Roof" and "Vagrants In the Valley". These novels are of semi-autobiographical in nature. Simplicity is the beauty of Mr. Bond's writings.