I had bid farewell to Mr. Ruskin
many years ago. He was just a textbook author for me. I did not enjoy his
writing during my school days. Those chapters were just like gateway for me to
reach next standard in school. I was sure I would not pick his books in future.
However, before leaving Kolkata, the sunshine man (my boyfriend. I will call him “the sunshine man” from now onwards in my blog posts) gave
me “the Ruskin Bond Mini Bus” to read and my unexpected journey with the Ruskin
Bond’s books started again. The sunshine man is an ardent fan of Ruskin Bond,
so much that he does not mind calling him “Rusty”. Rusty is Bond’s nickname.
This book is very close to his heart as it reminds him about his favorite place
“Himalaya”. Ruskin’s books have encouraged the sunshine man to write poems and
short stories since his childhood.
Mini Bus is a collection of
Ruskin Bond’s four famous books - Himalayan Tales, The India I Love, A Little
Night Music, Roads to Mussoorie. As soon as I started reading it, I felt like
packing my bags for a trip to northern part of India. If you are nature lover
and if there is a child inside you still then this book is for you. A little
night music is the compilation of his poems on children, nature, mountains,
love etc. I have experienced all kind of emotions while reading this book. His
description of North India would poke that traveler in you to come out. His
writing style is simple just like him. Simplicity in his writing indicates two
things: First, he writes books for young
readers. Secondly, he is not writing to be “publisher friendly”. In mini bus,
He writes about his childhood adventures, his life in Garhwal hills, which he
calls his home, his life as a writer and many more essays, stories that are personal.
I will read other books
written by him. Next on my wish list is Flight of the pigeons. I am also currently
reading Love in a torn land, written by the author of Princes and Mayada, Jean
Sasson. It is a story about one woman’s daring escape from Iraq.
After reading Ruskin’s Haikus and
short verses, I just made a daring attempt to publish my one-liners here. I
wanted to turn these one-liners into poems someday but that never happened due
to the lack of poetic genes inside me. My not so creative inventions were:
- Love is what you make it.
- My dream is under construction.
- I am not dreaming any dream; I am actually living my dream.
- Do not write me off yet, I still have a story to tell.
Have you read any of Ruskin
Bond’s books? What do you think about them or what are you reading now?
Take care all the lovely SHEs out
there around the world! Happy Reading! :-)
