My Time in the Town

by Ruskin Bond

‘I preferred the solitude of the small district town to the kind of social life I might have found in the cities; and in my books, my writing and the surrounding hills, there was enough for my pleasure and occupation.’
There is something incredibly charming and wonderful about Ruskin Bond’s portrayal of small-town life. It is a portal into a world of eccentric, odd but, above all else, kind-hearted and warm people who live alongside the natural and historical beauty found in these towns.
In My Time in the Town, Bond brings together a collection of his best writing on small-town India, in all its nuanced yet simple and unhurried glory. With these stories, Bond shows us the irresistible warmth and appeal of small-town life while also exposing the often dark, superstitious, ghostly or even just politically corrupt aspects of it. This book promises to be a journey into the soulful and laid-back simplicity of small towns!

118 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 5, 2023

About the author

Ruskin Bond is an Indian author of British descent. He is considered to be an icon among Indian writers and children's authors and a top novelist. He wrote his first novel, The Room on the Roof, when he was seventeen which won John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. Since then he has written several novellas, over 500 short stories, as well as various essays and poems, all of which have established him as one of the best-loved and most admired chroniclers of contemporary India. In 1992 he received the Sahitya Akademi award for English writing, for his short stories collection, "Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra", by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters in India. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 for contributions to children's literature. He now lives with his adopted family in Landour near Mussoorie.

Reviews

[Dhwani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only Ruskin Bond can make me want to pack up my bags and move to a smaller, secluded town and live my life slowly.

Reading My Time in the Town was one such experience for me. Sir is very observant and simple in his ways of living and one can feel that in his writing.

My Time in the Town is an anthology containing 8 stories with small towns/villages as their backdrop.

Mr. Bond with the smalls towns as his stage tell us about it's people and their ways of living along with the things we often tend to swipe aside in our busy life. This anthology contains some of the best written stories by Mr. Bond.

Sir makes us fall in love with the characters of his stories no matter how crude or real they are. He ends up exhibiting that stories are found amidst all of us no matter who we are and that small towns and villages don't only have a slow living vibe but many aside from this.

My favourites were :

• Bus Stop, Pipalnagar
• Time Stops at Shamli
• Great Trees of Garhwal

[Jainand Gurjar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book: My Time In The Town
Author: Ruskin Bond
Genre: Anthology
Publisher: Rupa Publication
Pages: 120

The Time In The Town by Ruskin is an anthology consisting of a novella, essay, short fiction, and anecdotal tales. This collection in particular brings out the best work of Mr. Bond about small towns and the life there.

Mr. Bond is one of my comfort authors, whenever I want comfort in stories, I look forward to reading his works. This collection, in particular, is the one where the simplicity of the town gets entangled with the beauty of Mr. Bond's writing and of course, nature.

Consisting of 8 of his writings, this book covers a lot of issues that a small town deals with. On one hand, there is simple living, caring, and sharing and on the other hand, there are superstitions and political tactics.

Here are the short reviews of each of the write up:
"Cold Beer at Chutmalpur" showed how this small market town called Chutmalpur gave birth to a chain of thoughts, regarding the people there, of what they do to how the contribution of some significant people fades away with time.

The next two in this collection are a novella and an anecdotal tale, which I have read previously in the collection "The Girl On The Train" as well. "Time Stops at Shamli" talks about how when the author stopped at a small station in Shamli and lived at a hotel there changed something in him, and how the people there contributed to it while "Bus Stop, Pipalnagar" is about the people of Pipalnagar. How friendship, care, warmth, and affection are their qualities and how simple they are.

"A Village In Garhwal" shows us the glimpses, life, and the way of living of the people of Garhwal, one of India's most northerly regions. From the human-wildlife interaction to health facilities and how natural calamities affect their day-to-day life, it has so much in it in a few pages.

"Great Trees of Garhwal" talks more about the natural surroundings, trees, and their stories in detail. And when Mr. Bond writes about nature, it just creates magic, just like nature itself. From Deodars to Walnuts and Horse Chestnuts, it was a pleasure to read it.

"Voting at Barlowganj" shows how the politics and politicians are, especially at the time of the election, and how they differ when the election period ends. A subtle satire and carrying a lot of meaning in between the words and sentences, this story shows the ground reality.

"A Magic Oil" is a short fiction, telling how the oil which promises to increase sexual potency makes a way to increase the salary of the seller as well! A very short story, but enough to give moments to enjoy.

"The Story of Madhu" as the title suggests is about Madhu, a girl of around nine years. This story was the one that made me emotional, that has so much in it and so much left unsaid, so that the reader can feel it. A story I know I would not forget easily.

This was the collection that I will recommend to anyone who is looking forward to seeking comfort, and visiting the memories of the small towns. I will give it 4.2/5 stars.

I was provided a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

[Ashutosh Misra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Low rating simply because the stories in this compilation have been published and read before. Each as interesting as can be - but seeing them together in the context of life in a small town gives it a different flavour. Chutmalpur, Shamli, Pipalnagar, Barlowganj - town that still exist with maybe evolved culture, people, climate, but the essence still remains as mystical. In such towns, time has either stalled or moving at a much leisurely pace as though the rest of world doesn’t exist. I personally liked the small town journey in this compilation, cover-to-cover

[Mrudhula Baskaran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I awake to what sounds like the din of a factory buzzer, but is in fact the music if a single vociferous cicada in the lime tree near my window.

Ruskin bond fills this short story collection with phrases like this, painting pictures of Indian culture and environments like the mountainous himalayas and buzzing cities like Pipalnagar.

Five stars for the authenticity that captures many emotions in a few words.

[Mehnaz Amjad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stories of Life

Stories of our lives retold sometimes through nature or through emotions.
The magic of Ruskin Bond as a wordsmith is pure magic

[Anandita · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book make we want to move to a house in an hill and every evening have a hot cup of tea sitting in the gazebo with a book in my hand