Depending upon where and how you spent your growing up years, the pace of a Ruskin Bond book could soothe your nerves, they can lull you into peaceful daydreams, they could take you in a flashback mode and they can make you cry for your momma, daddy and your childhood dog and your best buddy and the days long gone by and have me positively rambling….
Now Mr. Ruskin Bond’s books are NOT true biographies but they bear shades of biography, some true pieces, some made up tit bits are richly interspersed in the tales. Also, since the Mr. Bond has lived only one life you’d find certain similarities, some repetitions here and there in his stories. But they also make the reader feel she is an old acquaintance of the author…like hearing again and again your father’s or grandfather’s stories of his golden youth.
The book ‘Rusty Runs Away’ is a collection of short stories. There are splashes of joy, a bit of sadness, optimism of youth in the stories, the voice is peppy and all is wrapped in inherent simplicity of narrative.
The first story ‘The window’ is about friendship between a lonely boy Rusty and Koki, a new girl in neighborhood and how the presence of a likeable person in your life changes your days agreeably.
The second story is ‘The Prospect of Flowers’, this is again about friendship but this time between two unlikely persons, the school boy Rusty and eighty years old spinster Miss Mackenzie. Here interaction with youth brings some sunshine into the life of the lonely spinster.
‘A Job Well Done’ has some dark humor, it reminds me of a story of Saki about an orphan boy who had to live with his oppressive Aunt and his wishful thinking for revenge bears fruit one day…this story is macabre and at the same time funny..
‘The Woman on Platform No.8’ is heartwarming tale of a chance meeting of the boy Rusty with an older woman at the Railway Station where Rusty is waiting for his train to Boarding School. The woman senses the boys loneliness and befriends him and pretends to be his mother in front of his friend’s insensitive mother...(Caution: Lonely young adults DO NOT talk to strangers, DO NOT accept eatables from them, DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT copy this story).
‘Running Away’ is the star attraction of this collection, young Rusty and his Sikh friend Daljit decide to run away from their strict, uninspiring boarding School, their object is to reach Jamnagar (Gujarat) where they’d board a ship/tramp- streamer captained by Rusty’s uncle. How they prepare for this escape and how the two fifteen year olds survive the world outside using their wit and a dare devil approach makes for a nail biting adventure. (Caution again: DO NOT, DO NOT copy any of it young adults).
'The Playing Fields of Shimla’ is a poignant tale. Rusty (who is now at a different boarding school because of ‘Running Away’ fiasco) befriends another lonely, reticent boy Omar, with both playing hockey for the school team the bond of trust and camaraderie strengthens. But then comes partition in 1947 and Omar has to go to Pakistan while Rusty remains in India.
‘It Happened One Spring’ is a coming of age story. The same events are also covered by Ruskin Bond’s first book ‘A Room on the Roof’ written at the age of seventeen. Rusty was living with his guardian who was a cold, indifferent person barely bearing with Rusty. Although he was not allowed to but Rusty makes friends with Indian youths Somi and Ranbir, he was introduced to their world- the India beyond his all-white- upbringing limits, to the chaat shop in Bazaar and colors of Holi which ultimately lead to his violent falling out with his guardian. His new friends help him in setting up a life of his own.
I love all the stories, reading Ruskin Bond stories is like visiting your childhood home...one cannot bring back those days but one always cherishes the memories.
My copy is published by Puffin and costs Rs. 250/-.
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