CHAPTER V

Autobiographical Strains In the Works of Ruskin Bond

Perhaps every work of literary art, whether a poem, a play or a novel,

has an autobiographical touch as whatever is written in a wide and

deep sense comes out of one's own personal experiences. A number of

authors like Samuel Beckett, Dickens, Chekhov have suggested that in

the characters or the situations, there is always an expression of

author's own life and his point of view. As pointed out by eminent

English critic lyard, the hero of Milton's Paradise Lost is neither Adam,

nor Satan, nor Christ, but Milton himself, as it Is more or less

individual self that has found the reflection In his magnum opus. In

Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov and

Dante's Divine Comedy, personal expressions and feelings have taken

place increasing the degree of subjectivity. This subjective note and

the signature of the author permeate in the whole work. The

experience works as a catalyst in the formation of the author's work

and as Soren Kierkegaard wrote:

Life can only be understood backwards.

But it must be lived forwards.

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Hence, in order to understand authors like, Keats, Shelley, W.B.

Yeats, Andre Gide, Kafka, Baudelaire and D.H. Lawrence, it is very

important that their letters and diaries are read, as this study will be

very rewarding and relevant. Even Shakespeare's, words and

expressions, embedded in his works, give idea of his personal and

aesthetic traits, Joyce's Portrait of the Artist, Samuel Butler's ''The Way

of all Flesh", Wordsworth's epic poem ''The Prelude", D.H. Lawrence's"

"Sons and Lovers", all are the works, shaded with autobiographical

strains. Even T.S. Eliot, wrote his theory of poetry and drama, to

resolve the problems, which arose in his creative works. Almost all the

writers put personal experiences In their works of art. So it is the inner

need of the writer to express his own ideas and experiences, and

perhaps this factor is responsible in giving autobiographical strains, by

Ruskin Bond in his works. Bond was bom of English parents in India,

so he was set on a constant search of his own self and Identity as he

has his roots in Indian soil, he loves the nature and environment here,

though he is not an Indian by blood. He has written novels, short-

stories and essays and many books for children and every piece of his

work is sprinkled with the magic of the mountains, trees, brooks,

songs of birds, flowers, rainbows, sun and shade and the people who

live on this land. He has written about his childhood experiences to the

old age dilemma of life, his personal and private needs put him to the

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task of writing and he is also made to write due to public

requirements. So he writes for the masses, from the masses, for his

plots, characters and situations come from simple and common

settings. As Shahnaj Hashmi puts it; that best sellers may be exciting

but Ruskin Bond's fiction is serene and tranquil, mostly

autobiographical.^ He writes about his sources of inspiration and feels

"There is no end to the shapes made by the clouds, or the stories they

set off in my head Most of our living has to happen in the mind".

Ruskin Bond's stories are about simple people as he finds it difficult to

write about gangsters, murderers, psychopathic and crooked and dirty

politicians. So he writes about grandmas, uncles, aunts, neighbours,

friends and of course the little children who are like innocent angels.

He also writes about the simple encounters in life, small Incidents

which happen in the lives of common people and avoids writing about

violence, noise and peace disturbing anecdotes. He keeps various

creatures and dirty thoughts out of his mind and imaginations, only

the Tales, fairy-Tales, stories of jinns come out on the pages. He

writes about ghosts who are friendly and animals who are useful in

daily life, or animals who are part and parcel of environment around

villages or areas of dwellings of human beings. Bond's stories for

children are his own experiences of childhood and there is an element

of melancholy in writings of Bond. His parents were separated, at his

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tender age and he was put to his father's custody, unfortunately that

was also for a short period as his father died soon and he had to

return to his mother and step-father. Bond's childhood had been

tormented; he was neglected and never loved by anybody after his

father's death. As he grew up, he discovered his deep love for

children, who are innocent and kind, therefore Bond started to write

for the children, to celebrate their innocence, to satisfy their instable

curiosity to know things and grow in a proper manner, to become a

balanced human beings and learned as well. He seems to perceive the

divine halo in the innocent children. Psychologist Adier, suggests that a

person seeks the compensation in dream or art for what he misses in

real life. This is very true to Ruskin Bond as he seems to fulfill all his

childhood wishes through his writings. As he comes across the people

who have been kind, through his stories as in "T/ie Woman on

Platform" he meets a lady who showers her motherly love on him. The

Room on the Roof, is another novel with obvious autobiographical

elements and is a pioneering adolescent novel, with the problems of

growing children, who during this crucial period, have to make

important decisions, that affect their life, in the long run, touching

every aspect of the existence, on this earth. As Judith R Harris and

Robert M Liebert put it:

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Adolescence is the transitional period from the

dependency of childhood to the Independence and

responsibility of being an adult. At this point of their

lives, young people struggle, with two fundamental

problems: to redefine their relationships with parents

and other adults, and to establish themselves as

individuals. ^

Bond has written about the adolescence period, to highlight the

problems of young adults at this time and also to resolve these

problems and understand their own worth, for "Young adults

experience isolation, socialization, confusion, and rebellion" ^ at this

turning point of their life as Reed puts It. Bond writes about

adolescent's concerns about rebellion against restrictions, identity

crisis, alienation, personal autonomy, problems of secularity, choosing

a career and financial status, through the story of Rusty, the

protagonist, who is an Anglo-Indian like Ruskin, orphaned and Is

brought up by his guardian, in the hilly town of Dehra Dun. The novel

has autobiographical elements as Rusty is shy, withdrawn and

suffering child like Ruskin. He is lonely and wanders In the hills, till he

comes across Somi a Sikh teenager, who offers him a bicycle ride, at

the age of sixteen it was time for Rusty to develop personal Interests.

As put forth by Field and Weiss:

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"By the time children are nine or ten years old, their

feelings of loyalty to family and friends can be

extended to country, particulariy to a symbol, such

as flag. It is not until children enter their teens that

most feel allegiance to customs and Ideals. "^

So Rusty chooses open friendship, hospitality of his friends, warmth

and vitality of India as done by Ruskin. So according to Jungian

psychologists, such individual is the one" who is endeavoring to

discover and assert his personality"^ as written by Handerson and in

India, he is able to connect to nature, the environment and the people,

fairs and festivals, society in order to rejoice in this new worid of

freedom. Rusty is initiated into the worid he loves, the country of his

dreams, the land of his desires called India. As Ruskin Bond writes:-

He wanted this to go on forever, this day of feverish

emotion, this life in another worid. He did not want

to leave the forest; it was safe its earth soothed him,

gathered him in, so that the pain of his body became

a pleasure... ̂

So Rusty feels the warmth of Indian Culture, traditions, also receives

unconditional love and there is a sense of security, sharing of affection

in the Indian land. Rusty becomes so much Indian that he takes dip of

ritual bath in holy Ganges in Haridwar, symbolizing his renewal and

baptism to become Hindu. Rusty belongs to India despite his white

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skin, so does Ruskin. Ruskin Bond loves the country of his birth so

nnuch that he could not dare to leave India for lucrative jobs abroad.

So we find that The Room on the Roof'\s blending fiction with

autobiography. Ruskin writes about the trauma of partition and also

Gandhian Ideology, in autobiographical shades, as given In A Flight of

Pigeons the story about the times of Mutiny (1857). I t is a novella

about an Anglo-Indian family, in which historical events are kept at the

background and imaginary characters are highlighted. Bond himself

being an Anglo-Indian certainly seems to have put some

autobiographical elements, in his works, while writing about elite or

the Britishers, who stayed on in India, and they are not unhappy in

India, rather have enjoyed every moment here. As an Anglo-Indian

and an outsider he also sees the poverty, squalor and muddle in India

but he never either affirms that or negates them. His characters like

Miss Mackenzie, an old woman of eighty five. In his ''Good Old Days"

and Miss Mary Liddell are nostalgic but without malice. Bond's literary

theory represent personally or vicariously realized life, through

imagination, highlighting the old values of charity, love, compassion,

affection, and brotherhood without a cold touch of British snobbery, so

Ruskin Bond is therefore the gentle voice of Indo-Anglian Literature:

Ruskin's work has affinities with Kipling especially the interest in

supernatural and the children along with animal-worid. Most writers

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and especially the Anglo-Indian writers have generally ignored Indian

flora but Bond talks about nature openly, he writes about natural

beauty in India, its hills, rivers and ravines, waterfalls, streams, pools

hidden in some jungle, he writes about flowers and trees of different

kinds and there is affinity between man and nature for Ruskin as in

"Listen to the Wind". His imagery is nature based as "Azure butterflies

flit about the garden, like flakes of sky". He writes about trees and it is

quite evident that he has inherited the love for trees from his father,

so when he loves the trees, this shows his regards for his own father.

Bond in "The Trees" infuses a human quality Into the trees also find

them very divine, this is the reason why he intensifies his kinship with

the trees. Bond enjoys and reads the quality Of frees in every weather

but the most in monsoons season. He also Identifies his own loneliness

to the trees and also nature seems to calm dawn any evil inside him as

he wrote in "There Are Ttrees in My Garden" these lines:-

and a laughing boy

stands over new grown clover

where last year September

I buried my revolver

in the dark .... ̂

Bond's love for trees is not one sided as trees also seem to love him,

respond to him, and there is a perfect harmony In the relationship

between the two. In "Lone fox Dancing" Bond writes:-

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Intruder in your pillared den, I stood

And shyly touched your old and rugged wood

And as my hands explored you, giant tree

I heard you singing.®

Ruskin and his young characters develop an especially close and

touching relationship with trees. Bond believes that trees are sacred

and he is deeply attached to the trees so are trees attached to him. In

One Upon a Mountain Time, he narrates an episode about the trees he

planted with his father in Dehra-Dun, just before his father's death and

when he returned after a long time, to the same place, the trees had

multiplied and seemed to whisper a greeting to him. Many times he

wrote about trees and creeping vines moving towards his father and

grandfather as if to show their love, respect and gratitude to them

perhaps. Bond believes that there was a time when trees could walk

about like people till someone cast a spell on them and rooted them in

one place and he seriously looks forward to time when trees will again

start walking freely. This is quite obviously a metaphor for the

destruction of trees on this earth. Bond is a staunch environmentalist

and is against feeling of trees and pleads that tress are for birds and

animals who live in the forest, and also beneficial to human beings in

many ways.

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Bond has harmonized and humanized the world of nature to

consecrate his own joy and peace he has discovered the determination

and strong willingness to survive the competition, to live, in the plant

kingdom, as he writes in his "Cherry Tree" which despite all odds

struggles to survive, in the same manner as Bond himself struggled to

carve a niche for himself in this world. Bond is in love with nature as

every aspect and element of nature amuses him. Even the *sun'-prime

mover of animal and plant kingdom-gets Bond's love when he writes in

" I Offer a Bribe to the Lord", the praises for the sun and wants the sun

back in the sky when sun is out. He has a deep love for nature,

particulariy the flora and fauna of the Himalayas as he has lived in the

lap of nature, in these hills hence autobiographical element can be

seen in his works, sprinkled with hill's virgin beauty. The deep

attachment to the mountains gets reflected in his works, most of his

novels are set in hill stations, especially The Room on the Roof, An Axe

For the Rani, Love is a sad song, they are set either in Dehra Dun or

Mussoorie. Now this is very autobiographical feature as few authors

can write about Uttar Pradesh hill resorts, at length, like Bond, who

has lived here for most of his life and has visited hill ^regs of Garhwal

and scaled the heights of Himalayas to reach upto 'Gaumukh' the

origin of the holy Ganga. Bond also writes about the place where he

spent his childhood days. Apart from Jamnagar, Bond has spent a

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major part of his life in Mussoorie, Shimla, Delhi and Dehra Dun so he

creates the ambience of these places in his works, like ''Coming Home

to Dehra" "My Father's Trees in Dehra" ''A Guarding Angel" "The Night

Train at Deoli". He writes about small places like Clock Tower of Dehra

Dun, Picture Plaace, Dila Ram Bazaar, Allahabad Bank, Kempty falls,

Landour Bazaar of Mussoorie but at the same time he has also written

about big places like Delhi, as Anand Lai puts It:-

The only city that figures in Bond's works under discussion is Delhi,

and the associations it arouses are in auspicious. In The Room on the

Roof, the fatal car crash that wrenches Meena away from Rusty occurs

while the Kappor's travel down from Dehra to Delhi in quest for job.

Delhi looms in the distance like industrial cities In Thomas Hardy's

Wessex, never quite entering the arena of activities yet foreboding no

good.^ Hence it is very personal feeling of Bond that big cities like

Delhi are no good, which gets reflection in his words. So he finds

himself comfortable with hill's flora and fauna along with its people.

The sights of nature are omnipresent in all his works, along with the

people whose sounds echo in his stories and novels. Even animals get

a good place in his stories as his works are so full of animal imagery,

and that is because he made friends with animals, way back when he

lived with his grandfather, during his childhood days. Bond's father

and grandfather were instrumental in inculcating a respect for the

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rights of animals on this earth and also In the tender mind of Ruskin

Bond. In Grandfather's private Zoo, a collection of short stories based

on his experiences, his grandfather appears to be a different person

who respects animals and tries to save them from being killed by

anyone. He also protects dying of a wound or starvation and offers

them safety and care. Even his grandmother though an antagonist

who doesn't like this animal business, still she takes care and nurses

the wounded animals to health and to their normal lives. "Panther's

Moon" and "Tigers Forever" are Bond's sincere efforts for the

preservation of wild life. He narrates another humorous story where

Rusty accompanies Uncle Henry and his friends on a shikar , but Rusty

stays back at veranda of hunting lodge, the hunters don't see any

animal but Rusty happens to see a panther and a deer behind the

trees. This is his love for animals as he wants to save animals from

getting killed in the hands of hunters because even animals have the

right to live. The story "All Creatures Great and Small" describes the

eariy childhood friends and companions like monkey, tortoise, Hornblll,

Python, all found in his grandfather's menagerie in Dehra. Apart from

that, he has also written about the man-eater tiger in "The Panther's

Moon", which was actually killed for mercenary gains. Bond's works

are records of his concern for ecology and environment, as he wants to

protect the environment of his birth place, as he feels indebted to this

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land. Bond's works are thus autobiographical, no matter from which

angle we see it as Jussawalla writes:

Though there's a strong autobiographical element in

Bond's work, he has never been at ease with

personal confession, except of the most discreet

kind/°

Excellency of Bond's work Is the result of his vision of holding a

balance between nature and human beings. Bond's love for world finds

expressions, in varied forms, not only through nature but also through

such objects that are negligible and insignificant. The apparently puny

looking items become important for the author and past nostalgic

feelings arise in the mind, to motivate the thought and action. These

objects enjoy their bloom, as the strong emotions cluster around these

objects. One such object, in the mind of Ruskin Is the Indian trains, for

he has fascination for the trains, just like the legendary R.K. Narayan.

As a young boy, Bond used to travel by train, to his boarding schools,

what he saw then made a lasting imprint on his mind, and the sights

and sounds of the typical Indian railway stations came across in many

of his works like "The Night Train at Deoli", "The Eyes Have it", "Time

Stops at Samli" "Going Home" and "The Woman on Platform No.8" and

"The Tunnel" is yet another story. These stories are grounded in Indian

railway stations, which certainly are impressions of the

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autobiographical elements in his writings. He talks of tongas in ''The

Last Tonga Ride" to the Indian railways as he has seen and

experienced all these, hence puts the essence of these objects in his

works making them purely autobiographical. He stands the witness to

old and new times. Bond's grandfather was also instrumental in

inculcating a respect for Railways; William Gierke worked for Railways

and was one of the pioneers in bringing the railway line to Dehra Dun

at the turn of twentieth century. The insignificant things matter for

Bond; this Is very personal and gives autobiographical shades to his

works. In his works inanimate objects occupy a special place in the life

of a character that the person becomes very attached and close to

such an object, in such circumstances object becomes a powerful

motivating agent behaving like some other character. In those works

of Bond there are several such notable objects which deserve special

attention of the readers as they remain centre of activities in a story

and also reflect Bond's attitude to all things great and small, giving his

works a special autobiographical strain. In "Angry River" the rag doll

called Mumta, made out of bits of old, tom-off clothing, by her

grandmother, becomes a bosom friend of Sita, her grand-daughter

and she shares all secrets with her. Sita Imagines Mumta as her

companion, since there are no other children on the island and she

feels lonely and isolated. In the same story another object of

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importance is 'hookah', which belonged to her (Sita's) great

grandfather but now it is with her grandfather. Hookah, stands at the

corner of the room and it is a valuable possession of the family and

cannot accompany her sick grandmother to the hospital and SIta risks

her life to save this valuable possession. Another object is the glass

tumbler, and her grandmother's sheesham wood walking stick. Even a

peacock which she finds on the sands is of great Importance, which

compensated with the loss of her doll Mumta In floods. In one another

work "Ranji's Wonderful Bat" a great importance is given to a bat with

which he won all the matches. In another story 'The Tunnel" an

ordinary lamp becomes significant for the traveling thousands, as

Sunder Singh, the watchman waves the lamp to the train, to guard

and protect against any possible danger. In Bond's Axe for the Ran",

an axe Is important because Rani was murdered by Kamla, with the

help of an axe. In his "Sanctuary Features" which regularly appeared

in The Telegraph Daily, he talks of many such ordinary objects as-an

old gramophone, a large mahogany box, which is inseparable from the

heart of the protagonist. In recently published 'The Black Cat" a

broom is the centre of the story. In "The Kite Makers" kites are

significant, in the "The Blue Umbrella", a blue umbrella is inseparable

from the shade story. These instances establishes the fact that Bond's

writings are autobiographical in a sense that he gives a lot of

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importance to the small things In life. In many other stories one finds

unique Indian aroma of its people and socio-economic scenario as in

"From Small Beginnings" where Bond talks about migration of men

from the hills, in search of jobs, also he gives the idea of hardships of

hill folk, he sympathies with these people and writes:

These is hunger of children at noon, yet

There are those who sing of sun sets

And the Gods and glories of Himachal

Forgetting to one eats sunsets."

Being an insider in this society, he puts all his experiences to his

writings as he writes about Indian realities for instance at one place, in

his work "Untouchable" he has mentioned the plight of one

untouchable boy in an indirect style, in "The Gartands on his Brow" he

talks of the plight of wrestler and elsewhere in "The Kite maker" he

describes the problems of those who make kites for survival, but social

changes and modernization dictate that the change is all set so these

poor folk also have to change their profession. Bond has studied the

hill folk, he has interacted so well with them that he knows their

tradition and culture so well and perhaps this puts him at ease with

writing stories which have an element of the superstition. He heard the

stories of ghost, Jinns and churails, from his childhood friends

gardener and cooks and also from the common men and village folk as

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he grew up, he also studied stories with supernatural elements, hence

he tried his hand in such narratives. The story 'The Trouble with Jinns"

is one such story which grandmother's in villages tell to the grown up

giris, in order to advise them to keep their hair tied In a bun or plait.

He wrote "Dead Man's Gift" on the belief of Indian society, that upper

caste person cannot touch a corpse because it would lead to

defilement. Bond writes such stories because he himself likes to enjoy

Indian culture but he does not write about religion and politics, he

avoids it, perhaps not to indulge in controversial matters partly

because he is ignorant of religion and partly because he is an outsider.

In spite of the fact that he has seen the British rule, Indian

independence, the horrors of partition, the Hindu-Muslim divide, and

much more, still he avoids such themes settings and events in his

works. If he has ever written about religion, it is always in accordance

with Indian values, in a very reverend manner as he wrote about

baptism in waters of Ganga. To fulfill demands of children in his

adopted family, he wrote books like ''Adventures of Ram and Sita and

Hanuman to the Rescue" in which he narrates story of capture and

rescue of Ram's wife Sita, with the help of Hanuman. In "Tales and

Legends from India" he tells the stories form Sanskrit epics, some

folklores and stories from Jatakas. He also wrote the stories form tribal

areas. It is an autobiographical aspect of his works that he has written

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stories from Indian traditional literature, this shares his love, interest

and concern for Indian culture. Despite being an Anglo-Indian, Bond

believes In Indian mythology and has good knowledge of Indian

rituals, this belief in the ancient Indian values is result of his long

association with this country. He has authored many stories based on

the Indian mythology, like "The Panthers Moon" where he talks about

Lord Ganesha and his elephant head along with the description of

whole story regarding this event. The another ancient Indian system of

division of person's life in four ashramas or stages gets a place in "The

Coral Tree", "The Window", "When You Can't Climb Trees Anymore"

and others, and it seems that he has unconsciously imbibed the Indian

system of ashramas, in his works. K.M. Chander says in the article

that Bond has done much better in Indian writings than anyone else in

"dealing the Indian reality in all its complexity".^^ Even If he writes of

universal themes like love he gives a personal touch, making the work

full of autobiographical elements. Bond has written several stories on

the theme of love and romance and it seems that he is an incurable

romantic as he writes with so Intense passion and feelings but

autobiographical strains can be seen woven In every romantic story as

he himself had unhappy times in romance and lost love many times,

perhaps this is the reason that he could not get a match for himself

and remained a bachelor. He also always writes about love and losing.

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there are many stories In which narrator seems to be Bond himself and

in many other stories in which some one else seems to tell about the

love stories, e.g. are "The Room of Many Colours" in which tragic love

of Rani and gardener Dukhi is told by someone, and "Listen to the

Wind" is another example there are stories where lust is mistaken for

love as "The Girl from Copenhagen" and ''The Most Potent Medicine of

AH". Although the romantic stories have an Indian backdrop still It

seems that Bond retains a British core within these stories, and so

even though the stories are set in Indian backdrop but the facts and

reality he portrays in them is his very own, a very personal one-that of

a man who lives in alien country as exemplified by his autobiographical

works like "Love is a sad song" In which he can not marry Sushila

because he is British, and so he loses the woman he loves as she

belongs to a typical joint family and he would not smoothly fit into the

scheme of things, in this type of family set up. Upto some extent this

is a true picture, of affairs, in India so by putting autobiographical

elements, Bond has given a profound quality to the story. Bond also

has always, liked giris with dark complexion, he does not have that

fascination for the fair giris, all his heroines are dark coloured. It Is so

perhaps being British he has a liking for opposite complexion, so he

does not like fair skin and likes dark giris. All the stories of romance

are autobiographical, and quality of writing Is such that they seem to

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be true. The stories like "Miss Bun and others" and "Love is a sad

song" were narrations from his own journal which he wrote in the heat

of the moment. Still Bond's stories are so full of reality. Indian reality

is autobiographical In his works. He gives Indian settings, which look

like inherent part of the stories, just because he has been exposed to

the Indian Culture so much. He feels one with the land of his birth, and

identifies with the Indian reality, so much that even if he writes stories

based in England, he still talks about India and Indian culture. An

example of this kind of story is "The Man who was Kipling" where the

narrator meets Kipling. On a bench, in Indian Section of the Victoria

Museum in London and they start reminiscing about India and Bond

writes that Kipling was in a nostalgic mood so they discuss Grand

Trunk Road, the temples of Benaras, Shimla, the snow covered peaks

of the Himalayas, the gardens full of fruits in Saharampur and many

other Indian things. Indian reality is very much a part of Bond's writing

and this gives the impression that his works are purely

autobiographical. He has discovered that, day to day happenings make

a solid matter for his stories, no matter how small the events are.

Bond is definitely the one, who is able to describe the perfect

Indian favour in a foreign language. He also has used some typical

Hindi words in his works but that is not very frequent. Such use of

Hindi words definitely gives the idea of his Indianess and

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autobiographical strains are evident as we can understand that writer

is Indian, by heart and soul if not by birth as Indian flavour floats on

the surface of his works; in almost all of them.

Bond's short narratives allow him to weave in personal details. He has

also written about his adopted family in "From Small Beginning", about

Prem and about the dependence on this poor boy, who came to him,

when he was a bachelor and with the passing of each day, the mutual

trust between the two grew and today he is Bond's family, his children

call Bond 'Dada' the grandfather. An account of this adopted family

also appears in his another story "As Time Goes By" in which the past

memories of his childhood revive at the sight of Prem's small children.

There is always a touch of reality in the works of Bond due to

autobiographical elements, as he himself told Ruby Gupta in an

interview that:

Yes well perhaps I am writing of people who came

into my own orbit or into my experience of life. When

I write of other people, it's usually of people I have

known, or observed. And with whom I even have

certain empathy. I find it may be... difficult to write

about some body for whom I don't feel a certain

empathy or sympathy. So may be that's a

disadvantage. But that's the way I am, or the way I

write.

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Ruskin Bond has many times said that he writes out of his own

experiences, hence the autobiographical touch Is evident. He loves the

country, the Indian sky, the calm beautiful India and Bond is Indian to

the care. John Masters call India a "god forsaken country"^^ and his

guru is afflicted with leprosy, in the 'coromandol' so Master says about

him "India had touched him"^^ with "fecund squalor, diseased and

germinating dust, circling vultures, hot sky,rain, and rioting lust"^^

Many other foreigners do not like India but contrary to all this Bond

keeps India in high esteems, and loves everything about India as he

writes in the "The Rain in the Mountains":

What else do I love and remember of the hills?

Smells again .... The smells of fallen pine-needles,

cow-dung smoke, spring rain, bruised grass, the

pure cold water of mountain streams, the depth and

blueness of the sky.^^

Bond's India is in the lap of nature, it is lovely, miraculous, marvelous,

wonderful and fascinating. He loves India, her people, her flora and

fauna, her hills and valleys and customs and rituals, old traditional

values of India. Bond loves the village life as his roots have been deep

in the village but he shuns city life. He does not like people, who reside

in big cities as he finds them crafty and cunning. On the contrary

village people are rustic, innocent, plain. Bond is overtly sympathetic

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to rural people, as they have perseverance, believe In hard work and

have patience. They take the life as it comes to them and do not

indulge in clever tricks to cheat the other person for personal gains. In

'Going Home' a man Daya Ram is depicted as a simple and plain man

but having a large-heart, who loves to help every body and also

believes in old customs and ways. He is very innocent and fails to see

through the passengers who cheat him and suffers silently. Hence, the

innocent villagers living on the margins of civilized society never feel

drawn to the urban life. They feel protected and cocooned In their own

village, in a manner, as Kamla-Markandeya has shown in the ^Nectar in

a sieve, 'where the husband and wife go to the city, only to be cheated

away, whereas they were quite safe and protected in their own village.

Bond also makes his characters feel comfortable In a village as he

himself also feels the same. In his another work "The Tunnel" his

character, the tunnel watchmen says:-

It is safer in the jungle than in the town. No rascals

out here. Only last week when I went into the town,

I my pocket picked: Leopards don't pick pockets.^^

This story celebrates the quiet, calm, simple,

innocent, sincere and a friendly environment of the

villages. The villagers are so simple and Innocent

that when they get cheated, they fail to understand

as to why people do such acts, as Daya Ram

wonders in Going Home.

214

As the engine gathered speed, his thoughts came

faster. He was not worried (accept by the thought of

his wife) and he was not unhappy, but he was

puzzled; he was not angry or resentful, but he was a

little hurt. He l<new he had been tricked, but he

could not understand why; he had really liked those

people he had met in the shop of Raiwala, and he

still could not bring himself to believe that the man

in rages had been pulling on an act.̂ ®

Hence, Bond was attracted towards small villages, and in 1963, he

gave up his job in Delhi to come back to the foothills of Mussoorle, as

it was relatively inexpensive too. The hills were kind to Ruskin, always

welcomed him with open arms and the people loved him without any

selfish motives of any kind. As Ganesh Salli puts it, in his book, in

Bond's own words:

I was tired of a desk job. It could well have taken

away may freedom and I could well have lost my

dream of becoming a full time writer' he reminisces.

But it was time to move on, flee the snares of the

world. '^

Bond's interaction with the village folk enhanced his knowledge of folk­

tales, ghost stories and other incidents of village, which worked as a

raw material for the stories he wrote. With fabulous imagination he

215

cooked up stories from folk tales and superb narrative craft to evoke

the exact atmosphere of ghost stories which seem real, and lend a

personal quality to his works. With personal details and

autobiographical elements, he builds up hair-raising ghost stories, as

he has done with perfection in "The Haunted Bicycle". Hence we can

say there is a magical dimension to some of his works, which are

realistic e.g. the protagonist sees visions of his dead father when he is

in need, or the ghost of great-aunt Lillian tucks in the author every

time he throws off his blanket while sleeping.^° Several of Bond's ghost

stories are based on the Anglo-Indians, who still haunt the hill station

like Mussoorie and Shimla, and they are the ''ghosts of soldiers,

adventures, engineers, magistrates, memsahib, their children, even

their dogs".^^ Bond heard the stories of ghosts from his neighbour

Miss Ripley Bean, who claimed that she had personally seen ghosts, of

the people she knew and even her father would come to her, after his

death, to ask her certain questions. His best story about ghost and

haunted house is a whisperings in the Dark", which Is a stor/ about a

house built by the British folk but now stands deserted, the narrator

takes a refuge, in this house, in a stormy night and the house turns

out to be perfectly maintained by two Anglo-Indian sisters, who used

to lure rich persons to their house, rob them and suffocate them to

death. The spine chilling account of narrator's brief stay there and his

216

being suffocated with a pillow, seems to have autobiographical

elements of Bond's own thought and feelings about the Anglo-Indians,

who had to vacate hill stations.

Bond also wrote "The Monkeys" on the same lines. He Is familiar

with the Indian Ghost's, the ones' who sit and wait on the peepul trees

for the travelers, and also of churails, whose feet always face back

wards, and he believes in the folk tales and folklores, as he puts it:

"It has something to do with their fear of the dark, their

belief in demons and malignant spirits, who...In trees, to

take possession of the bodies of leopards and sometimes

humans.""

Bond himself believes in ghosts and he has had visions of his dead

father. He says that ghosts are not bound by time or physical barriers;

they are "intangible" and "do not recognize our impermanent, man-

made frontiers".^^ Therefore the autobiographical strains are evident

even in his ghost stories. His stories are like windows through which

reader can peep inside, to look around, the worid of Ruskin. Whatever

is seen or depicted in his stores, about his characters men, women and

children, all that comes from real life experiences of the author, and

point towards his attitude, thoughts and feelings regarding the society

and about the ways of worid. His stories acquire an Impression which

is typically 'Bond'. Bond is not concerned with extraordinary.

217

unusual but he wants to stick to the ordinary life, quiet adventures of

dealing life, snnall events, old values and activities of common man, to

spin a yarn around these and make a story. His writings are

autobiographical nostalgic with authentic and vivid descriptions of

people and places in India. As M.K. Nalk puts it:

His favorite subjects are pets, plants, animals and a

variety of have-nots including waifs, orphans,

abnormal children, restless adolescents and

frustrated old men whom he portrays with genuine

compassion Bond is at his best In evoking

nostalgia for the vanished sights and scenes of the

boyhood, of the pathos of the inexorable march of

time... Another special feature of Bond's stories Is his

acute responsiveness to Nature the great affinity

between trees and men.^"*

Bond always had been autobiographical In his writings. Whatever he

wrote, was the outcome of his own Interaction with society. Whatever

he came across, in his life, he kept a journal, later wove stories out of

the records he made and also the authors he read. As he feels and

says in an interview, about autobiographical Note running through his

fiction:

There always has been, ever since I've been a boy I

think it was the way I grew up a lot ....on reading

certain writers. It depends a lot also on the writers I

liked. The writers I liked were all autobiographical:

218

essayist like Charles Lamp, you know. Dickens I was

Influenced by a lot. I read all his books, when I was

in school. Or like Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights,

or even Tagore, I used to read his poetry when I was

young. You know that personal autobiographical note

is there in these writers.

Bond has given new dimensions to the short-story writing, by giving a

picture of real India, which he saw and as he saw it. As C.V.

Vengugopal puts it:-

The Indian short story in English is well developed

and shares signs of distinct possibility of becoming

one of the most significant forms In the field of

Indian Writing in English. The short story has been

successful in presenting a faithful picture of India."

Almost all characters in his stories are simple people drawn from hilly

regions, living either in foothills or In mid-hllls of the Himalayas, in

small remote villages spared by any urban influence and having pure

and sacred atmosphere around them, to sanctify their thoughts and

feelings and be as natural as the virgin nature around them. Most of

the characters are women, men and children, and sometimes old

people as well and all of them have an autobiographical element and

we find proximity between narrators and the characters as well as

events.

219

Another very autobiographical feature about the Anglo-Indian writers

is that almost all of them have interest in the old graves and

graveyards, so has Bond made graveyard_s an important Subject in

some of his works. This was an effort to write about those who had

been left behind and the inevitable end of their existence was death

symbolizing the end of British Raj and an era. The Anglo-Indian

heritage was slipping away and Bond tried to catch and collect the

ending moments, in his woks of art. The middle aged Anglo-Indian left

India after independence but the elderly, who were bom and raised in

India did not want to leave the country. Bond has written about those

who were left behind with a companion or none or sometimes only

with a servant, left to die and his works on them are on the people like

Miss Kellner, Mrs. Deeds and Miss Ripley Bean. He wrote in 'The

Scenes' about her funeral and he himself was the youngest of all or

the only young person to attend her funeral. He has also written about

funeral, graves and graveyards because. In order to find out the place

of burial of his father, he had actually visited many graveyards. The

Funeral' is one such work where the protagonist sees from a distance,

the burial of his father and finds consolation In the thought that

perhaps his father would escape the grave by growing into a tree. This

is also a ver/ autobiographical thought as he Is British and Indian

both, so he mixed the idea of Hindu belief of rebirth and reincarnation

220

of the soul with the Christian concept of the judgment day. He has

also written about finding his own father's grave in the year 2001, at

the age of sixty seven, with the help of Maya Banerjee the wife of

Victor Banerjee, when he visited Bhowanlpore cemetery in Calcutta,

after nearly fifty-seven years since his father passed away. So

obviously Bond's writing on this subject is autobiographical. Another

Feature of Bond's works is that he has written about his parents and

their life. He found that there was no compatibility between his mother

and father, as his father was bibliophile and had his Interests in

literature whereas his mother was fond of parties, wine and shikar. His

mother would have quarrels with his father and then go to unknown

places for days, Ruskin was left tortured, traumatized and insecure. He

became introvert, absorbing things inside his heart and mind. It

seems, that all this was bubbling and sizzling, inside so he put it in

black and white, poured it out on his works, to achieve the catharsis .

He never exactly wrote about his mother and perhaps that was an

attempt to forget her, erase her memories from his mind and to

forgive her as well. His relationship with his mother was skeletal, sans

much love or emotions, outwardly. She was impulsive, frivolous and

also wery irresponsible and had an affair with a Punjabi business man

who was also married . Ruskin never got care and love from the

mother, she neglected him so much that he finally took up friendships

221

outside, with the children whose parents would shower love and

affection on hinn and with them he had the feeling of acceptance. In

his own fannily, other people neglected him, due to the misconduct and

remarriage of his mother and were never cordial to him like his aunt

and uncle who did not approve of his writing ambitions. Bond's longing

for mother's love dress him closer to his grandmother. Freud regards

one's mother as the component of female in the man's personality,

and where the mother is missing, the man finds the projection of the

motherhood, in some of the elderly women around him, who nurture

and care for him, these could be grand mother, sister, aunt, wife or

any other woman around him. In "Chachi's Funeral" we find this

element in 'Chachi', in The Room on the Roof in Kishen's mother, and

such feeling is also extended to the stranger woman in ''On the

Platform No.8". Perhaps the most powerful projection of this mother

image is associated with Mother Nature, in Bond's works, as he finds

solace in the lap of nature and had grown up like that. In "The Last

Time I saw Delhi" a tale of his tragic suffering and forgiveness, he tells

the reader, that these things were realized by mother, but that was

too late. Ruskin Bond had no positive memories of his mother, but he

loved his grandmother and finds his mother In her. "In The Last Time I

saw Delhi" he also writes about his mother's resemblance to the

grandmother. Thus, it is indeed an autobiographical element that he

222

found the image of mother in other ladies outside but not in his own

mother, so he has never written about his mother, In a sweet manner

and perhaps never was much attached to her.

The projection of motheriy love and motherhood was extended

to his father as well, who love was equivalent to the mother's and this

also seems an autobiographical element in his works. He learnt

everything from his father and was so attached to him that he never

felt the need for mother's love. In "My Father's Trees in Dehra" he

writes about the time when they sat In veranda together and Bond saw

the creeper coming towards his father as it shows its care, love and

the respect for his father. He also writes about the happy times when

both of them would go to jungle to plant saplings and the young

Ruskin would ask him who would come and see these here? Least

knowing that one day Bond himself would come and find the trees

whispering to him. His father loved him and nurtured him with same

care and concern, that is why, when he comes back to his mother one

day after the death of his father, he took big notice of the harsh

behaviour of his step-father and also told him that Bond's father never

scolded him. In "A Handful of Nuts" father's visionary seeing is

described, when Ruskin sits under the shade of a tree. Even through

he lost his father at the age of ten ,still no orphan feelings were felt by

Bond, he found his father present around him, whenever, he felt lonely

223

and caught in some dilemma, and Bond has till today, kept his father's

last letter to him, where he gives him guide-lines regarding good

writing. It is another feature of these works that the feeling of

motherhood was reflected in his father, which is unusual but true, as

father was worth hundreds of mothers around . His complete

companionship with his father was so satisfactory that perhaps he

never ever wanted to depend on women, hence the decision to remain

a bachelor sprouted in his mind and he never put himself in the hanfls

of women, and this is again a very autobiographical feature of his

writings and his works on love and romance elsewhere.

Bond also tries to bridge the generation gap between young and

old and there is loving, caring and nurturing relationship between

them. The author had a very good and an emotional relationship with

his own grandfather, he cherished it in heart and also through his

works for e.g. "A Gariand of Memories" and "Grandfather's Private

Zoo", these two works are reminiscent of the autobiographical pieces

about Bond and his grandfather. In another story "The Cherry Tree",

the same relationship has been depicted between Rakesh, a six year

old boy and his grandfather. Rakesh plants a cherry tree and cares for

the delicate sapling through crucial first year, when a goat cats it and

then a grass sapling grows to become a sturdy tree and bears fruit one

day. All the insects, birds and bees came to visit the tree so does

224

Rakesh and his grandfather too. Though Rakesh feels elated and is

proud of his cherry tree in the same manner, grandfather is proud of

his grandson, whom he is raising with the same love and care as

Rakesh, is raising his cherry tree. Like the tree, Rakesh has grown tall,

healthy and sturdy and helps his grand-father in the fields and there

remains a nurturing and loving relationship between the two. The

grandfather provides carefree shelter to his grandchild Rakesh, so that

he grows physically, mentally and spiritually and learns to grow up in

harmony with the nature and also understand the transcendental

vision of life. Bond also, in his childhood learnt to love nature,

animals and all that comes in his life from his grandfather. After

retirement, his grandfather built a house in Dehra Dun and he was the

only one in Bond family to own a house in India. Ruskin would visit

this house during his school holidays, and he was so influenced by the

natural setting that it later became the background of his short stories

and noveiJas.Even as he grew up. Bond wanted to own the house

back, it was only late in life that Bond, for good settled down in

Mussoorie. He says: "the atmosphere [of Dehra) was to become a

part of my mind and sensual nature".^^

In his childhood. Bond was lonely and sad and this loneliness

made him quite his experiences, his interactions with nature and

people brought many thoughts to his mind, but no one was there with

225

whom he could share all this, hence he turned to writing, as his father

also had advised him and he kept a diary to record, all that he felt and

thought, which gets the reflection in his works. As Viola Bye an old

family friend now settled in New Zealand says and as written by

Ganesh Saili, in his book:

" I think Ruskin was rather a lonely, private person,

and may be that is why he found his outlet in writing

and may be his life was sad too. But I think he is

very caring and dedicated human being".^^

Hence autobiographical elements of his works are obvious. He was

happy, when village people and nature; welcomed him with open arms

and the love he longed for, came running to him when he came to

Dehra. He observed all these good and nice gestures in his works

lavishly, to make them shine like the rays of prism, to make the

Kaleidoscopic images and turn them into the shape of stories and all

this was:-

The affection, the camaraderie, the simple pleasures

of friends in Dehra: the sounds the smells, the sights

of India that he had left behind. Though he had been

brought up with a love for the English language and

its literature, and despite his ancestors being British.

England was not for him. He did not belong there. He

belonged very firmly to 'the peepul trees' and the

mango groves: to the sleepy little towns all over

226

India: to hot sunshine, muddy canals the pungent

scent of marigolds: the hills of home: spicy odours;

wet earth after summer rain, neem pods bursting;

laughing brown faces; and the intimacy of human

contact.^^

All these are autobiographical elements are carefully woven into the

designs of his stories from real life, the essence of Indianness Is

sprinkled and admired in his work because Bond is form this land he is

an Indian from heart.

At times, Bond has also exhibited the idea of a room of one's

own, a space for one's own self. This is purely autobiographical as

being British he can harbour the thought of getting a separate space in

one's family. Indians do not have the concept of personal space and

such an idea is unthinkable, in a country like India, where there are

joint families, which means many people of family living under one

roof. But Bonds makes this need very evident, in his works and

needing a personal space is entirely a western concept. Perhaps such

need has been inherited by Bond because he demands a personal

space, right from the beginning of his life, when he was a small boy.

He always yearned for privacy and freedom. In India the concept of

privacy and freedom are not understood as the chains of duty to the

family and others shackle everyone. In joint family set up and one

never finds oneself totally free to do what one wants. Bond has a

227

strong sense of individuality, which is very personal, this is seen in his

works like "What's You Dream", As Margaret 0. Macmillan puts it that

Anglo-Indian children were part of this "charmed enclosure of the Raj"

and that they were raised "with all the obligations and privileges that

brought".^^ Thus Bond always wanted a room, a space and freedom.

As British community in India was elite, Kipling writes:

I grew up in bright sunshine, I grew up with

tremendous space, I grew up with animals, I grew

up with excitement, I grew up believing that white

people were superior."^°

Bond also had the same life style, when his father was alive. He was

sent to best school, where only upper-class and affluent families could

afford to send their children. Critics of British Public Schools hold that

"Public schools and their products were responsible for the decline of

British empire because they mass-produced snobbish students lacking

in the reality of life in India", as^^ Khorana has puts it, Ruskin felt that

life at public schools was not in tune with Indiana realities, so he tried

to be as Indian as possible and adjusted himself in whatever little

space and room he go here.

The space he chose was in the foothills of the mighty Himalayas,

where he still revises. Bond says, in an interview that he was ^'not

attracted to Mussoorie as a town, but to the surrounding hills, forests.

228

and streams, or may be to the people from the villages".^^ Ruskin has

been living in Mussoorie for nearly forty long years now and he has

made Himalayas a part of his life and works as a writer and this is

purely an autobiographical element found In his stories. He wrote

about "Pari Tibba"^^ as a place where he mediates and gets Inspired to

write, he calls it a "place of peace and power".-^ Regarding the

mountains he writes that "when you have received love from people,

and the freedom that only the mountains can give, then you have

come very near to the border of heaven".^^ In "Ganga Descends" a

collection of sixteen essays, Bond celebrates the elegance of

Himalayas by providing an account of his many explorations into the

hills. Bonds love for Himalayas is deep rooted in their permanence and

stability. Bond complains that "The Himalayas do not appear to have

given rise to any memorable Indian literature, at least not in modern

times" as the Himalayas were celebrated in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Nepali,

Bhutanese literature.^^ Hence Bond has taken up the responsibility to

embellish the English literature with the sprinkling of Himalayan,

snowy shreds, in his own works of art. Bond has written about

Himalayas lavishly right from foot-hills to Gangotri and also about

Hindu pilgrimages like Kedaranath, Badrinath, Rudraprayag, Valley of

flowers, and even the rare animals like black Himalayan bears. The

places described in "Ganga Descends" are not even on the regular

229

tourist map as only a great lover of nature or an ardent pilgrim can

scale such heights and brave a trip to such remote areas. Rukun

Advani says: " his sentences are moist with dew and the mountain air,

with charm, nostalgia and underplayed humour. Even when rather

slight, his stories manage to contain episodes of quiet significance

within the developing sensibility of a deeply humane and civilized

writer".^^ While talking about Himalayas, the autobiographical strains,

in Bond's writings are evident. He is not a white man trying to

reconnect to the nature but Bond is a worshipper of nature and

admires the mountains from the inside of his heart, he writes: that

"the innocence of mountains, high places which have retained their

power over minds of men because they still remain aloof from the

human presence, barely touched by human greed".^® The mountains

are in backdrop of every story of Bond, this Is very significant and Is of

great importance because a very gentle, humanistic and spiritual

attitude, in the personality of the author seem to have sprouted due to

his long associations with the Himalayas. Bond has put the

autobiographical elements, in all his works and his works are simple

and touching. In India Bond has been pioneer in the field of children's

and young adult's literature and has made tremendous contribution to

short story writing still he considers himself a average writer with

modesty he writes:

230

"Among writers, I am not one of the big guns. I am

not even a little gun. I am just a pebble lying on the

beach. But I like to think that I am a smooth, round,

colourful pebble, and that someone will pick me up,

derive a little pleasure from holding me, and possibly

even put me in his, or her, pocket".-'^

Bond has rightly said so because readers keep him in heart, for his

simple, natural and autobiographical works. Bond's popularity as a

writer is evidenced by the pace at which his novels, short stories,

poems, and essays are being sold, demanded and reprinted in

collections. According to David Davidar, Bond's main publishers in

India, CEO of Penguin Books says that "Ruskin Bond is certainly big

gun in the writer's pantheon. There are adult books and the children's

novels, travelogues and essays, poems and anthologies, biographical

sketches and memoirs, and bearing the distinctive Bond style, deep

yet uncluttered, evocative yet spare, gentle yet searching and still the

writing flows as strong and as vibrant as it has even been and that is

something we continue to be grateful for".'*° Bond knows India as

insider and writes with great authenticity and emotional attachment to

the land of India. He writes "My reality was India and I need more of

India and less of England for my literary aspirations to be satisfied".'*^

Even the legends like Mulk Raj Anand agreed with Bond's Indians and

wrote:

231

Novels and stores seem to have emerged from with in

Indian homes/^ Bond has maintained his

autobiographical style of writing, using his personal

experiences and observations as a source of his plots,

characters and events of his stories. Bond says that

the writer and person "is one and the same thing. I

live through my writing, just as my writings live

through me.'*-̂

Bond Is so skillful in weaving his experiences in the stories, that

even if the story Is actually about someone else, the reader is

convinced that it Is autobiographical because Bond establishes an

intimate relationship with the use of first person singular T . As Haider

puts It:

I takes one in immediate confidence so that no doubt

arises as to the authenticity or creativity of the

narratives"."^

Rusking Bond's creativity comes from Indian lore and

superstition, and he has turned his experiences directly into piece of

art. His intuition works a lot in shaping up of his characters. His great

selective memory has helped him a lot in, forgetting what was

unpleasant. As Som P. Ranchan says that:

From this reality or attainment of Ruskin Bond, the

artists, practicing and prospective should learn how

232

to enable their analysts to internalize the positive

and pleasant and how to seal the unpleasant.'*^

He writes from his heart, he writes with emotions and is very loving,

kind, concerned and connpassionate. As again Ranchan says:

Ruskin Bond's writings, be they stories or novellas

are therapeutic form the Bhava perspective. If you

want to open, unveil, and activate you antakama, he

becomes your synpados and guide.'*^

Ranchan truly quotes these lines, as some of his works are truly

the reflections of every body's life and we can get guided by his

experiences. Once Upon a Monsoon time and The Room of Many

colours are based on the childhood experiences of the times when he

lived in Jamnagar. "My Rrst Love" is the short story where mother

figure Aaya takes care of him, as he wrote in ''Life at My Own Pace",

"Mussoorie and Landour Days" are yet other works which are

autobiographical. "The Last Time I saw Delhi" is based on the notes he

had taken when he meet to see his ailing mother, just before her

death and it is a farewell to his mother, "Lamp" is yet another

autobiographical novel. In Scenes from a Writer's Life he describes the

times after his father's death, but he has no where written about his

school B.C.S. in Shimla and school-days except in one work 'The

Playing Fields of Shimla", an autobiographical essay in which he

describes his friendship with one Muslim boy Azhar called (Omar) in

233

this work. "The Room on the Roof" is purely autobiographical work and

the protagonist Rusty is no other than Ruskin himself. His early

struggles are fictionalized in Delhi is Not Far and A Handful of Nuts,

"The Window" is yet another work where he writes about the people

known to him, the places he knows and about his struggles. 'The

Woman of the Platform 8" is again very autobiographical as he longs

for the motheriy love which he gets from someone else. ''Love Is a sad

song" is yet another autobiographical work where he loses his love.

"Walking the Streets of Delhi" Is another work which is based on his

trips of Delhi. The Lamp is Lit is about his notes on history as he

collected them on some tower to the historical places. These are some

of his works based on his even experiences and are purely

autobiographical and can guide so much, since he has the art of diving

deep in side the soul and mind of the readers. Ruskin Bond provides

on optimistic view of life and helps one to gain peace, also to

understand life better by looking at the funny side of It as he highlights

the beauty inside and outside the worid around us. He loves India so

much that he says "India is as much an atmosphere as It is a physical

entity. It has good will, tolerance, and resilience. And a hundred times,

I'd rather be living here than any other country". He writes a poem In

a collection of poems called "A Little Night Music" to tell us about his

234

Indian-ness:

The land is mine

Although I do not own it,

This land is mine

Because I grew upon it.

This dust, this grass.

This tender leaf,

And weathered bark,

All in my heart are finely blended.

Until my time on earth is ended.

235

Chapter V

Works cited

1. Shahnaz Hashmi: Ruskin Bond: Man of the Mountains, Tradition and Modernity, p6,

2. Harris, Judith Rich, and Robert M. Liebert: The Child

Development from Birth to Adolescence (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1984) p.460.

3. Reed, Arthea J.S.: Reaching Adolescents: The Young Adult Book and the School (New York: Holt, RInehart and Winston, 1985) 142.

4. Field, Carolyin W., and Jaqueline Shachter Weiss: Values in Selected Children's Books of Rction and Fantasy C. Ct:( Library Professional Publication, Hamden, 1987) p . l71.

5. Handerson, Joseph. L: ''Ancient Myths and Modem Man", Man and His Symbols, edited by Carl C. Jung, (New York :Doubleday, Garden City, 1964) 110.

6. Bond, Ruskin: The Room on the Roof (New Delhi: Penguin, 1993) p: (26-27).

7. Bond, Ruskin: It isn't Time That's Passing (Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1975) p.21.

8. Bond, Ruskin: Love Fox Dancing (Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1975) 10.

9. Anand Lai, 'Ruskin Bond', Indian English Novelists, Ed.. By Madhusudan Prasad (New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 1982) 107.

10. Jussawalla, Adil: "High Jinx", Times of India, June6, 1994 p47.

236

11. Bond, Ruskin: It Isn'tTimeThat's Passing (Calcutta: Writers sWorkshop, 1975)18.

12. Chander, K.M., What Alls Indian Writing in English? Commonwealth Language and Literature. Q.Z. Alam (ed.) (New Delhi: Bahri Publications: 1997)111.

13. Masters, John: Bugles and a Tiger, (Michael Joseph, London, 1955), pl65.

14. Masters, John: Bugles and a Tiger, (London, 1955), p l65.

15. "Coromandol", Michael Joseph, (London, 1955), p l65.

16. Bond, Ruskin: Rain in the Mountains: Notes from the

Himalayas, (New Delhi: Viking,, 1993).

17. Bond, Ruskin :Time Stops at Shamli and Other Stories, (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1989).p88

18. Ibid p.103.

19. Saili Ganesh. Ruskin Our Enduring Bond (Lustre Press. Roll

Books 2004).

20. Introduction, Bond, Penguin Book (xiii).

21. Bond, Ruskin: Mussoorie and Landour: Days of Wine and

Roses, (New Delhi:Lustre, 1992).

22. Bond, Ruskin: "The Sensualist: A Cautionary Tale" Strangers In the Night:Two Novellas. (New Delhi: Penguin; 1996)pl26.

23. Bond, Ruskin: Introduction, Bond, (Penguin Books)-X.

24. Naik, M.K. A History of Indian English Literature, (New Delhi: Sahitaya Akademi,, 1982) 2450.

237

25. Venugopal C.V. The Indian Short Story in English (a survey) (Bareilly:Prakash Book Depot), 118.

26. Bond; Ruskin: "Life at My own Pace" In Delhi Is Not Far: The Best of Ruskin Bond. (New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 1994) pl47.

27. Saili, Ganesh: Ruskin: Our Enduring Bond. (Lustre Press, Roll Books, 2004)p30.

28. Ibid. p.73.

29. Macmillan, Margaret Olwen: Women of the Raj: (City? Times

and Hudsen. 1988)p40-41.

30. Kipling, Rudyard: "Shrine of the Baba-log", In Great Tales from the Raj: Images of British India in the Twentieth Century ed. Charies Allen. (London: Andre Deitsch and British Broadcasting Corporation, 1975), p. 21.

31. Khorana, Meena. Introduction. British Children's Writers Ed. Meena Khorana. Dictionary of Literary Biography, 163. (Detroit: Gale Research Inc, 1996). xl-xx(xvl).

32. Interview with Meena Khorana,(Mussoories, July, 1995).

33. Bond, Ruskin: "Small Beginnings" in Our Trees Still Grow in

Dehra, (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1991)p83.

34. Ibid. 84

35. Bond, Ruskin: "The Writer on the Hill", Ganga Descends:

(Dehra Dun, The English Book Depot, 1992) p4.

36. Ibid p.2.

37. Rukun Advani Quoted on the back cover of Ganga Descep^^i (Dehra Dun: The English Book Depot, 1992).

238

38. Bond Ruskin: ''The Sensualist: A Cautionary Tale" Stangers in the Night: Two Novellas: (New Delhi, Penguin, 1996) p. 134.

39. Bond, Rusl<in: The Lamp is Lit: Leaves from a Journal.(New Delhi: Penguin 2002) (xi).

40. Devidar, David ''Ruskin Bond: The Man with the Golden Pen" Books today (April-June 2000)4.

41. Bond, Ruskin: When Darkness Falls and Other Stories.{fiew Delhi-Penguin: 2001).(xi).

42. Anand Mulk Raj. "Ruskin Bond" P.K. Singh, Creative Contours 33-35. (p.34).

43. Bond, Ruskin: Introduction: The Lamp is Lit: Leaves from a journaL{fie\N Delhi. Penguin. 1998) (x).

44. Haider, Aizaz "The Woman is Bond's short Stories" P.K. Singh Creative Contours (125-31 p. 126).

45. Ranchan, Som P. Bonding with Bond, (Graphic India, Chd. 2007).

46. Ibid. 83.

239