Showing results by author "Ruskin Bond"

Great Stories for Children is a potpourri of short stories that effectively transports the reader to the fascinating world of its endearing characters. The ensemble includes Tutu the monkey, who is fond of troubling the no-nonsense Aunt Ruby; a pet python who makes sudden appearances at the most unusual places; a troublesome Pret who enjoys stirring up the household he resides in; three young children stranded on the Haunted Hill; and Himalayan bears who feast on pumpkins, plums and apricots.

Miss Ripley-Bean was sitting on a bench beneath the deodars, having a quiet moment to herself, when suddenly two shadows, larger than life, appeared on the outside wall; they were struggling with each other. Only afterwards, when a dead body was discovered, did Miss Ripley-Bean realize she had witnessed a murder - and that the murderer had seen her.

This personal diary records the many small moments that constitute a life of harmony - with the self, the natural world, and friends, family and passersby. In these hours, we watch a wild plum blossom and the moon come up between two deodar trees; we hear a redstart whistle and the rain drum on a tin roof; we recognize the aftermath of loss and the consolation of old companions. A Book of Simple Living is a gift of beauty and wisdom from India's most loved and most understated writer. 

The 21 stories in this book are the greatest pieces of fiction written by Ruskin Bond. Chosen by the author himself, from a body of work built over 50 years, this collection includes well-known masterpieces like 'The Night Train at Deoli', 'The Woman on Platform No 8', 'Rusty Plays Holi' (from The Room on the Roof), 'Angry River', 'The Blue Umbrella', 'The Eyes Have It', 'Most Beautiful' and 'Panther's Moon' as well as newer stories.

One of India's finest and most prolific writers, Ruskin Bond has been putting pen to paper for well over six decades. Since The Room on the Roof - his award-winning debut novel, which introduced readers to the unforgettable Rusty, the orphan from Dehradun - Bond has created characters both charming and eccentric, which have endured in the popular imagination.

Why be happy and how, and why not to worry if you think you are not. Why it is easy to be happy, and how you can miss happiness even if it stands before you. How a bird can fill you with joy and how a stranger’s smile can soothe you. Why happiness may not even be the word for what we really need.  

In this brilliantly listenable autobiography, one of India’s greatest writers shows us the roots of everything he has written. He begins with a dream and a gentle haunting before taking us to an idyllic childhood in Jamnagar by the Arabian Sea and New Delhi in the early 1940s - where he found material for his first short story. A search for companionship and security, undercut by a fierce independence and a tendency for risk-taking, would inform every choice he made for the rest of his life.  

A classic coming-of-age story which has held generations of fans spellbound. Rusty, a 16-year-old Anglo-Indian boy, is orphaned, and has to live with his English guardian in the claustrophobic European part in Dehra Dun. Unhappy with the strict ways of his guardian, Rusty runs away from home to live with his Indian friends. Plunging for the first time into the dream-bright world of the bazaar, Hindu festivals and other aspects of Indian life, Rusty is enchanted...and is lost forever to the prim proprieties of the European community.

Ruskin Bond has been writing stories for children for over six decades now, delighting and enchanting each new generation with his heart-warming tales of friendship, love and coming-of-age. Curated in this essential collection are some of his best-loved stories, designed to introduce the young listener to Ruskin's cast of beloved characters.

Tigers for Dinner: Tall Tales By Jim Corbett's Khansama is a fun-filled book for children and adults alike. It is a collection of short stories about the adventures of Jim Corbett, narrated by his family cook, Mehmoud, to the author when he was a child. Narrated in a simple style, all the tales told by the cook are as delicious as his food and take the listener on a nostalgic journey.

As soon as Binya saw the beautiful blue silk umbrella, she wanted it. She wanted it so badly that she was willing to give her lucky leopard's claw pendant in exchange. No one in the village had such a fine umbrella, and everywhere Binya went the umbrella went, too. Gradually it faded to a pale blue and was patched in several places, but there were still many who envied Binya her treasured possession. And the most envious of them all was old Ram Bharosa, the shopkeeper who decided that by some means he must own the blue umbrella.

For over 60 years, since his award-winning debut, The Room on the Roof, was published, Ruskin Bond has charmed and entertained us with characters ranging from the animal world to humans to ghostly spirits, and his magic touch has often presented to us a world unhurried, tucked away in hills and valleys. What does it mean to be an octogenarian loved by the young and old alike? To be synonymous with the smell of pinewood and rambling mountain paths? In short, what is it that makes him Bond?

Suffused with warmth and passion, the stories in Falling in Love Again showcase the myriad variations of romantic love - fleeting, intimate, joyous, heartbreaking. Featuring classic stories by Ruskin Bond, such as 'The Eyes Have It' and 'The Girl from Copenhagen', this stirring collection captures the range of feelings that are indubitably part of the infinite spectrum of love.

It was a small island set in the middle of the big river, yet large enough for Sita and her grandparents to live there, together with their three goats, their hens, their vegetable patch, and the peepul tree.

From the time he was a boy living with his grandparents in Dehra, surrounded by an assortment of odd animals, people and relatives, to when he gets sent away to school, then makes his way to London and becomes a writer, Rusty has had more adventures than we can count. The Adventures of Rusty brings together his best, funniest, most exciting escapades. There's Toto, the monkey that travelled in a bag in a train; life as a young writer in faraway London; and more.

A great imagination makes for terrific ghost stories - stories that go beyond the tapping on the doors in the middle of a night or a whistling thrush or even a squeaky swing in the wind. This is a collection of some such horror stories selected and compiled by Ruskin Bond that will send shivers down your spine.

This brilliant new collection of stories by one of India s best-loved storytellers richly evokes Dehradun of the 1940s, with its quaint cinema halls and crumbling villas, its modest chaat-shops and ubiquitous tongas. But, as young Ruskin the narrator in these interconnected tales soon discovers, not all is as it seems in this sleepy town. Behind the tranquil facade, Dehra is home to a cast of colourful characters: from plucky old women to possible murderers.

Here is a collection of stories about school life that will appeal to every kind of school-goer. These are incidents from the author's own life, when he was a shy, quiet boy in boarding school who chose the library over the football field and was known as the best cook among the Boy Scouts. Read about beloved and eccentric characters like the strict Mr Oliver, Miss Babcock, the school nurse, and the principal who once went missing.

A lifetime of reading and writing, observation and contemplation is distilled in this comprehensive volume of the best essays, profiles and sketches by Ruskin Bond, the masterly and compassionate chronicler of the small details and lambent moments that capture the essence of a meaningful life. By turns thoughtful, humorous, keenly observed and wise, these essays span more than 60 years of his writing - from reflections on companionship and solitude to lyrical yet finely honed appreciations of nature to nostalgic evocations of bygone people and ways of life. 

I forget what took me to Fosterganj in the first place. Destiny, perhaps, although I'm not sure why destiny would have bothered to guide an itinerant writer to an obscure little hamlet in the hills. Chance would be a better word. For chance plays a great part in all our lives. And it was just by chance that I found myself in the Fosterganj bazaar one fine morning early in May....