The Night Train at Deoli and Other Stories is adorned with 30 most beautiful stories from Ruskin Bond. It effortlessly makes in to the must-have, must-read list of every reader. Simple, heart-warming and thought-provoking stories will take you to heavenly grounds of Dehradun and Mussoorie, where the author himself has spent his childhood and teenage years. The stories in the book speak of simple folk, who live in the technology untouched valleys and hills, the lush greenery and little crowded markets.
The book is sure to feel you connected with the Ruskin Bond’s idea of beauty, his anguish, joy and pain. His ‘Night Train at Deoli’ offers you a perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of daily life and fills you with serenity as you learn about the beauty in simplest pleasures. A book filled with small doses of heart melting stories-a book that’s loved, admired, recommended and treasured by many.
Ruskin Bond’s simple characters, living amidst the lush forests of the Himalayan foothills, are remarkable for their quiet heroism, courage and grace, and age-old values of honesty and fidelity. Residents of nondescript villages and towns, they lead lives that are touched by natural beauty as well as suffering-the loss of a loved parent, unfulfilled dreams, natural calamities, ghostly visitations, a respected teacher turned crooked, strangers who make a nuisance of themselves-which only reinforces their abiding faith in God, family and neighbour. Told in Bond’s distinctive style, these stories are a magnificent evocation of an India that may be fast disappearing.
Rain in the Mountains brings together some of Ruskin Bond’s most beautiful works from his years spent in the foothills of the Himalayas in the town of Mussoorie. Through vivid images and lucid writing, Bond evokes the everyday sights and sounds, and captures the essence of mountain life. The musings on his natural habitat, in both prose and poetry, offer a view of that simple and affable world. Some of his writings featured in the book are ‘Once Upon a Mountain Time’, ‘Sounds I Like to Hear’, ‘How Far Is the River’ and ‘After the Monsoon’.
Rain in the Mountains will transport the reader into the quiet world of the mountains, lit with an eternal charm.
Ruskin Bond wrote his first short story; ‘Untouchable’; at the age of sixteen over hundred stories; including the classics ‘A Face in Dark’; ‘The Kitemaker’; ‘The Tunnel’; ‘The Room of Many Colours’; ‘Dust on the Mountain’; and ‘Times Stops at Shamli’.
‘[Ruskin Bond’s stories]’ brings to life the special flavours of life in the hills…strengthen[s] the “Rudyardian thesis” that the smell of the Himalayas; if it once creeps into the blood of a man; he will return to the hills again and again and will love to live and lie among them.’-Tribune
‘[Ruskin Bond]’ is a writer who has; with intense depth and sensitivity; absorbed the essence of the culturally syncretic Indian society.’-Telegraph
This leaf; so complete in itself;
Is only part of a tree.
And this tree; so complete in itself;
Is only part of the mountain.
And the mountain runs down to the sea.
And the sea; so complete in itself;
Rests like a raindrop
On the hand of God.
Ruskin Bond’s Book of Verse brings together the poetry of one of India’s best-loved writers. This charming collector’s edition is a treasury of poems on love and nature; travel; humour and childhood; and will be a lasting source of delight to readers.
A delightful read… no one understands nature like Ruskin Bond and it takes his ability to put this wonder into words’-Deccan Chronicle For over half a century, Ruskin Bond has celebrated the wonder and beauty of nature as few other contemporary writers have, or indeed can. This collection brings together the best of his writing on the natural world, not just in the Himalayan foothills that he has made his home, but also in the cities and small towns that he lived in or travelled through as a young man. In these pages, he writes of leopards padding down the lanes of Mussoorie after dark, the first shower of the monsoon in Meerut that brings with it a tumult of new life, the chorus of insects at twilight outside his window, ancient banyan trees and the short-lived cosmos flower, a bat who strays into his room and makes a night less lonely… This volume proves, yet again, that for the serenity and lyricism of his prose and his sharp yet sympathetic eye, Ruskin Bond has few equals. ‘Once again this writer from Mussoorie captivates with his collection of nature pieces -Sunday Midday ‘Bond uses his pen as a brush to paint sensuous images of his experiences with nature and beckons his readers into his imagination … a book that relaxes the eyes, rests the mind, lulls the noise and lets one drift into the idyllic life with nature that most of us are unable to lead’-Dawn
For all those who have trembled through Ruskin Bond’s tales of horror and mystery, here’s another collection of strange and dark stories from the master storyteller. Within these pages you will befriend Jimmy the jinn who has trouble keeping his hands to himself, be witness to the mischief of the Pisaach and Churel who live in the peepul tree, and find yourself in the company of a bloodthirsty vampire cat, among other tales and curiosities that are guaranteed to send a delicious shiver down your spine! Written in Bond’s inimitable style and riveting to the core, this beautifully illustrated book is a must-have for anyone with a taste for the macabre.
In April 2006 Robin ‘Einstein’ Varghese; a stupendously naïve but academically gifted young man (he was ranked 41st in his class); graduates from one of India’s best business schools with a Day-Zero job at the Mumbai office of Dufresne Partners, a mediocre mid-market management consulting firm largely run by complete morons. Varghese finds that he fits into the culture remarkably well. Or does he? Through a stunning series of blunders, mishaps and inadvertent errors, Robin begins to make his superiors rue the day they were driven by desperation into hiring him.With things going spectacularly wrong in his professional and personal life, will Robin manage to achieve his short-term goal of being promoted to Associate in under a year? Will love conquer all and will Gouri walk with him through Dadar Department Stores with her hand in the rear pocket of his jeans? Dork: The Incredible Adventures of Robin ‘Einstein’ Varghese is for all of those who’ve ever sat depressed in cubicles…and wanted to kill themselves with office stationery. Especially that letter opener thing. Join Robin as he navigates his first insane year at Dufresne Partners in this first volume of the Dork trilogy. Praise for the book: ‘A stunning new voice in Indian literature! In Dork Vadukut has written the book I’ve always wanted to write’ – William Dalrymple’s biggest fan’s youngest sister. ‘I love this book. I love its voice. I love the author. He’s like a delicate crème brulee’ – Padma Laxmi’s ex-husband’s hairdresser. ‘I read this book and instantly knew that Robin Varghese is the role of a lifetime. Inshallah I will be a part of the movie when it’s made’- Shah Rukh Khan’s dentist’s accountant.
It was death at first sight . . .
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 . . .
In this marvellous collection of thrilling new stories set in the Mussoorie of a bygone era, Ruskin Bond recounts the deliciously sinister cases of a murdered priest, an adulterous couple, a man who is born evil, and a body in the box-bed; not to forget the strange happenings involving the arsenic in the post, the strychnine in the cognac, a mysterious black dog and the Daryaganj strangler.
As the elderly Miss Ripley-Bean, her Tibetan terrier, Fluff, the hotel pianist, Mr Lobo, and the owner of the Royal, Nandu, mull over these curious incidents, the reader will be enthralled and delighted—until the very end.
It is said that if the smell of the Himalayas creeps into a man’s blood, he will return to the hills again and again, and will strive to live amongst them always. Ruskin Bond, master storyteller and connoisseur of the mysterious and macabre, shows how this love may persist to death and beyond. The stories in this collection are set amidst the mists and mellow magic of Bond’s beloved mountains. The agents of the supernatural may be gentle like the fairy folk in ‘On Fairy Hill’, or malevolent like the well-dressed diners of ‘The Prize’; humorous like the very proper witch, Miss Bellows, in ‘The Black Cat’, or tragic like the haunting Gulabi in ‘Wilson’s Bridge’. ‘The Rakshasas’ harks back to traditional hill spirits, while ‘The Night of the Millennium’ poises us tantalizingly on the brink of the future. Bond aficionados will meet familiar faces in ‘Reunion at the Regal’. Rounding off this collection is a gripping mystery, ‘Who Killed the Rani?’, which is evocative of life in hill stations some twenty years ago. And over all the stories looms the benevolent or brooding presence of the Himalayas, described with Bond’s inimitable lyricism.
