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Scenes from a Writer's Life
Autobiographical reminiscences of author about his childhood and youth.
178 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
21 people are currently reading
401 people want to read
About the author
Ruskin Bond
680 books3,557 followersRuskin 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
November 22, 2014
VS Naipaul on this book:
"I have read nothing like that from India or anywhere else. It's very simple. Everything is underplayed, and the truths of the book come rather slowly at you. He is writing about solitude, tremendous solitude. He himself doesn't say it. He leaves it all to you to pick up. I haven't read another book about solitude from India. In a way, from this great subcontinent full of people, to write a book about solitude is quite an achievement. I was very moved by his book. He comes from a kind of darkness. There is a darkness all around him: a broken family in the background. There's a love for the father. He stays with the father after the family breaks down. He is quite a little boy. His father has a stamp collection. It's a serious stamp collection, a great family possession. Typical of Bond that he should put in a letter from his father, just saying 'the last letter from my father' - just prints it. Very affecting, very educated and sensitive, the letter. And then he just says: 'Two weeks later my father died.' That's the way he does it. After his father's death he looks for the stamp collection and he never finds it. It pains one to read about it. He does it in the Bond way, in a sentence or two. His father was in the RAF - fell ill somewhere near Calcutta, and probably died in the hospital. And the stamp collection was never found. Dead men's effects, you can do what you want with them because there's no family coming to look at them either.
[Interviewer: Tragic?]
Yes, but the writer doesn't make much of it. There's a sentence in the book which tells you what the book's about: 'I was alone, I was lonely, but I was not afraid.' Whereas other Indian writers have their elaborate family structure to write about, Bond has nothing, just a few individuals here and there. Very few. So he's an orphan actually.
[Interviewer: Does that give him a unique standpoint in India?]
I think so. But there's some personal quality there. His father called him Ruskin after the English social commentator and critic. He prints some letters at the back of the book from Diana Athill, that very gifted woman who was at Andre Deutsch and made Deutsch an important publisher. Her point is that he can take this paring-away of inessentials too far. He must understand that you've got to give the reader time to sink into a new mood or a new setting. This is his way of writing, though. He doesn't, as it were, make a meal of events like the death of his father. The book ends with a little letter to his dead father. He tells his father about the ride to the old school and how it's changed. He says he had a dream about a friend of his. I think he appears as a big man and the friend was still small, and he asks: 'I wonder when I dream of you I will be a big man or a child?' Very moving."
I fully agree with VS Naipaul here. He is bang on point. But I do not share as much enthusiasm for this book. I love the book, don't get me wrong, but it does not affect me as much as it affects Naipaul. The reasons I suspect are other than literary.
Bond, like Naipaul, shared a very intimate and loving bond with his father. In fact, the father was his only close friend till he was seventeen years old - and the father died when Bond was only ten. Bond, like Naipaul, was raised in a dysfunctional family, did not have a sense of permanent, owned home (they kept moving from place to place throughout his childhood) and suffered from loneliness, partly because he grew up as an orphan and partly because he was Anglo-Indian. Naipaul has always emphasized that he has no home, that his writing comes from this sense of no belongingness. These similarities and others (Naipaul's father too was a collector, a stamp collector if I am not wrong, and they too exchanged letters which Naipaul credits to be an impetus for his early writings...) I am sure makes it a special book for VS.
And the book IS special. Do read it, if you have ever read anything by Bond. Read it otherwise too. Penguin has produced a really nice paperback (love the cover design and the pages... so good to hold!) - totally worth the money.
"I have read nothing like that from India or anywhere else. It's very simple. Everything is underplayed, and the truths of the book come rather slowly at you. He is writing about solitude, tremendous solitude. He himself doesn't say it. He leaves it all to you to pick up. I haven't read another book about solitude from India. In a way, from this great subcontinent full of people, to write a book about solitude is quite an achievement. I was very moved by his book. He comes from a kind of darkness. There is a darkness all around him: a broken family in the background. There's a love for the father. He stays with the father after the family breaks down. He is quite a little boy. His father has a stamp collection. It's a serious stamp collection, a great family possession. Typical of Bond that he should put in a letter from his father, just saying 'the last letter from my father' - just prints it. Very affecting, very educated and sensitive, the letter. And then he just says: 'Two weeks later my father died.' That's the way he does it. After his father's death he looks for the stamp collection and he never finds it. It pains one to read about it. He does it in the Bond way, in a sentence or two. His father was in the RAF - fell ill somewhere near Calcutta, and probably died in the hospital. And the stamp collection was never found. Dead men's effects, you can do what you want with them because there's no family coming to look at them either.
[Interviewer: Tragic?]
Yes, but the writer doesn't make much of it. There's a sentence in the book which tells you what the book's about: 'I was alone, I was lonely, but I was not afraid.' Whereas other Indian writers have their elaborate family structure to write about, Bond has nothing, just a few individuals here and there. Very few. So he's an orphan actually.
[Interviewer: Does that give him a unique standpoint in India?]
I think so. But there's some personal quality there. His father called him Ruskin after the English social commentator and critic. He prints some letters at the back of the book from Diana Athill, that very gifted woman who was at Andre Deutsch and made Deutsch an important publisher. Her point is that he can take this paring-away of inessentials too far. He must understand that you've got to give the reader time to sink into a new mood or a new setting. This is his way of writing, though. He doesn't, as it were, make a meal of events like the death of his father. The book ends with a little letter to his dead father. He tells his father about the ride to the old school and how it's changed. He says he had a dream about a friend of his. I think he appears as a big man and the friend was still small, and he asks: 'I wonder when I dream of you I will be a big man or a child?' Very moving."
I fully agree with VS Naipaul here. He is bang on point. But I do not share as much enthusiasm for this book. I love the book, don't get me wrong, but it does not affect me as much as it affects Naipaul. The reasons I suspect are other than literary.
Bond, like Naipaul, shared a very intimate and loving bond with his father. In fact, the father was his only close friend till he was seventeen years old - and the father died when Bond was only ten. Bond, like Naipaul, was raised in a dysfunctional family, did not have a sense of permanent, owned home (they kept moving from place to place throughout his childhood) and suffered from loneliness, partly because he grew up as an orphan and partly because he was Anglo-Indian. Naipaul has always emphasized that he has no home, that his writing comes from this sense of no belongingness. These similarities and others (Naipaul's father too was a collector, a stamp collector if I am not wrong, and they too exchanged letters which Naipaul credits to be an impetus for his early writings...) I am sure makes it a special book for VS.
And the book IS special. Do read it, if you have ever read anything by Bond. Read it otherwise too. Penguin has produced a really nice paperback (love the cover design and the pages... so good to hold!) - totally worth the money.
January 8, 2016
"Hold on to your dreams,
Don't let them die.
We are lame without them,
Birds who cannot fly."
You pick up most of the books that you read. Yet some of them just run into you when you need them the most.
Don't let them die.
We are lame without them,
Birds who cannot fly."
You pick up most of the books that you read. Yet some of them just run into you when you need them the most.
January 21, 2013
'You can't win forever. Better to be a writer.'
March 2, 2012
I sometimes complain- that reading Ruskin Bond makes me rather sad.well, he was just being honest I suppose.I do not turn to him in my bad times, but otherwise,I absolutely love the way he writes.it is so very real.(that's why you don't turn to it when you feel down) this book had me shading a tear near the end, because I understand the way he talks, and I feel how sensitive his soul is.a wonderful capture of feelings and a budding life.
some wonderful quotes in there too.things you can learn and agree with - ones that had me shaking my head in consent.we totally agree! :D
some wonderful quotes in there too.things you can learn and agree with - ones that had me shaking my head in consent.we totally agree! :D
December 20, 2017
I need a dose of Ruskin Bond's writings on a daily basis, this served the purpose :)
June 12, 2018
Not the best writing of Ruskin Bond.
March 21, 2017
An inspiring life captured in a very personal account. In all the Ruskin Bond books one used to look for autobiographical elements - but this IS the real thing - the real story of 'Rusty's' life. This book captures several personal moments from the author's early life in India and the challenges overcome - the writer's short-lived relationship with the father he loved dearly, the struggles for the first writing contract, the visit to England, the 'sardar' friend, the mother moving out with an Indian man among others. Besides it also has some interesting historical elements - the molestation of a British woman in small town India(didn't know that used to happen!) AND the fights between the British and the 'Yankee' soldiers posted in India - are two nuggets I vividly remember.
This is also a self-help book - anybody who has a crib in life should pick up this book and see how a very ordinary situation and very trying circumstances were turned around by a young English boy in India to become arguably the best english-language writer in India..
This is also a self-help book - anybody who has a crib in life should pick up this book and see how a very ordinary situation and very trying circumstances were turned around by a young English boy in India to become arguably the best english-language writer in India..
August 30, 2022
Scenes from a writer's life - Ruskin Bond
Rating 4/5
This is the first of the two autobiographies of Ruskin Bond written in 1997. The second one being Lone Fox Dancing probably written in 2017.
Let me write the incident from the book which brought a smile on my face. Ruskin Bond writes that whilst in Simla, his father had shown him the actual shop owned by Lurgan Sahib of Kim (Rudyard Kipling) fame.
Infact, Peter Hopkirk in his book - Quest for Kim searched and searched for this shop, but could not locate it, the fact is he could have checked with Ruskin Bond!
Lurgan Sahib shop in Simla was where Kim got trained or hands on experience on various tricks which would be useful in the Great Game (undercover agent).
This book takes the reader back in time when Ruskin Bond was a child and about the time Ruskin turns 21 year old.
The book contains
1. Unedited journal entries of Bond which shaped his first novel - The Room on the Roof.
2. Few letters exchanged between Bond and his publisher Diana Athill.
But the mainstay of the book would be incidents, memories about Bond's childhood years, the place(s) where he has born, grew up, his very few childhood friends, acquaintances. Bond writes about his father, his employment as a English teacher for the princes of Gujarat, his RAF employment and his postings in Delhi, Calcutta, Karachi and his stamp collection. A majority of the memories are from his school days spent in the boarding school at Simla. Bond also mentions of his time spent in Dehra, in his grand mother's home along with Ms Kellner, where his reading habit shaped up along with the forest rest house in Rajaji National Park where he found couple of shelves of books. His experiences with cinema halls in Dehra and Delhi are also present.
Overall, I would say it is a very simple read and if you have read Bond's other works, much of the incidents over here shall sound relatable and read.
Then what's the reason I chose to read Bond again and again. Also why do I chose to answer the same question again and again?
1. Time traveling - Bond's writing takes one back in time, back to the days when technology was less, life was simpler and involved much more of physical activities than just internet.
I yearn for such days/experiences which are almost impossible to get now, what better way to escape fast lifestyle than delve into Bond's writing.
2. Bond's writing takes you places, Mussorie, Simla, Dehra, Delhi, Calcutta, Kasauli, back then how were these places faring and shaping up.
3. Trees, forests, wildlife, flora, fauna, many of which we do not get to see these days.
4. Optimism - Ruskin Bond has had a unconventional childhood, loss of father, lack of family support, relatively less friends circle, being responsible for oneself as a kid. But none could deter Bond from observing and writing about the most beautiful things, creatures and relationships. That's optimism all around.
5. Bond's writing moves an individual. You feel sad when Bond is sad, you feel happy when Bond is happy. And it happens implicitly. Loss of his father, his stamp collection, his letters knowing them makes you sad. But when you find Bond happy on his return to India, you too feel happy having found a lost friend.
Just curious what would have happened if Bond stayed back in England? Who would have shown me the beautiful state of Uttarakhand, the hills and its bygone forests, culture and people!
Cheers!
Rating 4/5
This is the first of the two autobiographies of Ruskin Bond written in 1997. The second one being Lone Fox Dancing probably written in 2017.
Let me write the incident from the book which brought a smile on my face. Ruskin Bond writes that whilst in Simla, his father had shown him the actual shop owned by Lurgan Sahib of Kim (Rudyard Kipling) fame.
Infact, Peter Hopkirk in his book - Quest for Kim searched and searched for this shop, but could not locate it, the fact is he could have checked with Ruskin Bond!
Lurgan Sahib shop in Simla was where Kim got trained or hands on experience on various tricks which would be useful in the Great Game (undercover agent).
This book takes the reader back in time when Ruskin Bond was a child and about the time Ruskin turns 21 year old.
The book contains
1. Unedited journal entries of Bond which shaped his first novel - The Room on the Roof.
2. Few letters exchanged between Bond and his publisher Diana Athill.
But the mainstay of the book would be incidents, memories about Bond's childhood years, the place(s) where he has born, grew up, his very few childhood friends, acquaintances. Bond writes about his father, his employment as a English teacher for the princes of Gujarat, his RAF employment and his postings in Delhi, Calcutta, Karachi and his stamp collection. A majority of the memories are from his school days spent in the boarding school at Simla. Bond also mentions of his time spent in Dehra, in his grand mother's home along with Ms Kellner, where his reading habit shaped up along with the forest rest house in Rajaji National Park where he found couple of shelves of books. His experiences with cinema halls in Dehra and Delhi are also present.
Overall, I would say it is a very simple read and if you have read Bond's other works, much of the incidents over here shall sound relatable and read.
Then what's the reason I chose to read Bond again and again. Also why do I chose to answer the same question again and again?
1. Time traveling - Bond's writing takes one back in time, back to the days when technology was less, life was simpler and involved much more of physical activities than just internet.
I yearn for such days/experiences which are almost impossible to get now, what better way to escape fast lifestyle than delve into Bond's writing.
2. Bond's writing takes you places, Mussorie, Simla, Dehra, Delhi, Calcutta, Kasauli, back then how were these places faring and shaping up.
3. Trees, forests, wildlife, flora, fauna, many of which we do not get to see these days.
4. Optimism - Ruskin Bond has had a unconventional childhood, loss of father, lack of family support, relatively less friends circle, being responsible for oneself as a kid. But none could deter Bond from observing and writing about the most beautiful things, creatures and relationships. That's optimism all around.
5. Bond's writing moves an individual. You feel sad when Bond is sad, you feel happy when Bond is happy. And it happens implicitly. Loss of his father, his stamp collection, his letters knowing them makes you sad. But when you find Bond happy on his return to India, you too feel happy having found a lost friend.
Just curious what would have happened if Bond stayed back in England? Who would have shown me the beautiful state of Uttarakhand, the hills and its bygone forests, culture and people!
Cheers!
April 6, 2023
Ruskin bond's works demonstrates that the ingredients for a happy life are the simple things in life. I read this book at a time where I was reflecting inwards. If I had read this book at any other time, I probably would have though much of this thin memoir on his boyhood. This is a great book on solitude, boyhood and introspection. I hope everyone who reads this simple memoir gets as much out of it as I did.
April 9, 2018
A simple, honest and a feel-good read. He managed to hop on to my favourite authors list after this book! :-) The flow of his writing is like water, shaping up easily and flawlessly under given circumstances.
March 9, 2015
I had purchased this book around 4 years back. I was really fascinated by Ruskin Bond since my childhood. I loved his stories and the way he writes as i had read his stories in my school days. I still remember some of his stories like 'the thief', 'the meeting pool'. I purchased almost all of his books but why i purchased his autobiography, i can't say. May be even at that point of time, my adolescent years i was interested in writing career. But even after bringing it i didn't start reading it. I decided to read it just last week as i was getting restless for my writing and wanted to know what a writer's life is like. And i must say the author really answers many questions of mine like what a writer face when he is an aspiring author. What emotions he goes through. I had a myth that in earlier days there was very less competition but i must also say that there were very few opportunities too due to less number of publishers, lack of technology and speed and not to forget a low literacy rate particularly in India. This convinced me that overall the situation was same now and then. But reading full book i could conclude that what matters is one's will and clarity of purpose which matters and nothing else. If you have a will to work hard and selflessly with passion, some day some one will recognise you.
I will also say that i felt at some times the author was getting very squeeze too. He could include a lot more and deduct very much at some places. The book title was also bit not correct as it was about scenes from writer's childhood and not a scenes from writer's life because he starts his life as writer's the scene ends, that is the book ends but as i must say Ruskin Bond's writing is so beautiful that his writer ends always convinced with him and finds the time was worth spending. This makes me feel good reading this book and i hope it will be an enjoyable read for anyone interested in him, his life and also aspiring authors. It will also inspire people who loves simplicity because it will prove them that despite living simply one can make a name and place for himself in this society.
I will also say that i felt at some times the author was getting very squeeze too. He could include a lot more and deduct very much at some places. The book title was also bit not correct as it was about scenes from writer's childhood and not a scenes from writer's life because he starts his life as writer's the scene ends, that is the book ends but as i must say Ruskin Bond's writing is so beautiful that his writer ends always convinced with him and finds the time was worth spending. This makes me feel good reading this book and i hope it will be an enjoyable read for anyone interested in him, his life and also aspiring authors. It will also inspire people who loves simplicity because it will prove them that despite living simply one can make a name and place for himself in this society.
November 18, 2023
I believe it's the energy, an auro of truth, of heartfelt, of honesty that reaches across the hearts through art. That and the lovely prose - that's what make this little life book charming. I read it on mornings before starting my office work and felt my day grounding. There's a compelling strength to this writing which never fails to calm you and show you how life could be simple and magical at the same time and that it's not money but wealth that counts. In india wealth is quite differently perceived. Or was perceived.
Why it resonates with me so much? Or is it everyone who goes through this experience on reading this author?
Why it resonates with me so much? Or is it everyone who goes through this experience on reading this author?
January 16, 2013
Having read a lot of Ruskin Bond and also having met him, reading this book was a absolute treat. His struggles and emotions are nakedly portrayed. This book would have been better if the biographical work extended to mentioning how he actually ended being a famous author and what his struggles where later in life.
April 24, 2014
This book is guaranteed to make you tear up and laugh all within its limited number of pages. The realness is what gets to you, there are several instances of great wisdom that only a child or adolescent can convey in simple words. A delight to read
July 10, 2020
Interestingly, one comes across more than a few authors who seek to pen down a memoir simply out of the conviction that their lives take readers through loads of enthralling avenues that even strangers would take pleasure in a meticulous account. But unless the author is a celebrity, a household name, most people beyond his family and close friends aren’t likely to care. They care about themselves and what your book offers them.
This book is not one that fits the above portrayal. Bond has been one of the most celebrated and inexhaustible authors of our generation. He has been one of India's prime Indo-Anglian writers.
Bond himself said once: "I had a disturbed childhood. As I grew older, maybe it helped to make me more sensitive to the problems of other children and understand their difficulties if they had an unhappy childhood. Of course, when you are writing a story for children you don't want to write something that is very unhappy or sad, you want to make them happy too," the author said at an event. "But despite the upbringing, I grew up to be a fairly optimistic individual and still am,"
When one goes through the pages of this book, he realizes that Bond has a lot to be astringent about. But it is with distinguishing moderation, his prose -- demure but unbelievably perceptive, that Bond leads his readers through the course of his early life.
His childhood was full of untold suffering. Born on May 19, 1934, in Kasauli, Ruskin was the son of Edith Clarke and Aubrey Bond. His father served in the Royal Air Force and recurrently travelled from place to place along with his son. When Bond was a boy of eight, his parents decided to part ways. His mother sort of abandoned him and got betrothed to a Punjabi-Hindu. Bond shared a convoluted rapport with his mother, who was hardly ever there to offer him warmth. They in due course grew isolated.
His father’s exclusive consideration helped Bond grow as an individual. Aubrey loved his son dearly and actually sold his entire collection of stamps to eke an honest living. One of the most poignant passages is a letter which his father wrote to Bond from Calcutta before his death: "Do you need any new warm clothes? Do you catch butterflies on sunny days on the school cricket ground?" He felt loved and secure but his tragic departure from his life left him lonely and broken.
The war offered Aubrey neither peace of mind nor body. He was down with sickness more often than notno peace of mind and finally succumbed to malaria. Following the sudden demise of his father, Bond moved to Dehradun where his grandmother raised him.
By the same token, heartrending is the description of Bond’s arrival at the Dehradun station, despondent and wretched after his father's demise – eagerly hoping to meet his mother. But of course, she wasn't there. She was missing as always. Bond writes: "No one who looked even remotely familiar came up to where I sat on my tin trunk beside my bedding roll, attach case and hockey stick. Even the platform dogs have slunk away"
Acute pain and a sense of disadvantaged childhood is replete through this autobiography. This is the prelude to the tale of one of India's finest authors.
This is a story of perseverance. This is a story of survival.
This book is not one that fits the above portrayal. Bond has been one of the most celebrated and inexhaustible authors of our generation. He has been one of India's prime Indo-Anglian writers.
Bond himself said once: "I had a disturbed childhood. As I grew older, maybe it helped to make me more sensitive to the problems of other children and understand their difficulties if they had an unhappy childhood. Of course, when you are writing a story for children you don't want to write something that is very unhappy or sad, you want to make them happy too," the author said at an event. "But despite the upbringing, I grew up to be a fairly optimistic individual and still am,"
When one goes through the pages of this book, he realizes that Bond has a lot to be astringent about. But it is with distinguishing moderation, his prose -- demure but unbelievably perceptive, that Bond leads his readers through the course of his early life.
His childhood was full of untold suffering. Born on May 19, 1934, in Kasauli, Ruskin was the son of Edith Clarke and Aubrey Bond. His father served in the Royal Air Force and recurrently travelled from place to place along with his son. When Bond was a boy of eight, his parents decided to part ways. His mother sort of abandoned him and got betrothed to a Punjabi-Hindu. Bond shared a convoluted rapport with his mother, who was hardly ever there to offer him warmth. They in due course grew isolated.
His father’s exclusive consideration helped Bond grow as an individual. Aubrey loved his son dearly and actually sold his entire collection of stamps to eke an honest living. One of the most poignant passages is a letter which his father wrote to Bond from Calcutta before his death: "Do you need any new warm clothes? Do you catch butterflies on sunny days on the school cricket ground?" He felt loved and secure but his tragic departure from his life left him lonely and broken.
The war offered Aubrey neither peace of mind nor body. He was down with sickness more often than notno peace of mind and finally succumbed to malaria. Following the sudden demise of his father, Bond moved to Dehradun where his grandmother raised him.
By the same token, heartrending is the description of Bond’s arrival at the Dehradun station, despondent and wretched after his father's demise – eagerly hoping to meet his mother. But of course, she wasn't there. She was missing as always. Bond writes: "No one who looked even remotely familiar came up to where I sat on my tin trunk beside my bedding roll, attach case and hockey stick. Even the platform dogs have slunk away"
Acute pain and a sense of disadvantaged childhood is replete through this autobiography. This is the prelude to the tale of one of India's finest authors.
This is a story of perseverance. This is a story of survival.
July 2, 2019
Ruskin Bond has lived a lonely and solitary life all his years except for those two years he spend with his dear daddy Aubrey Alexander Bond in the early part of 1940s in New Delhi. In spite of having lived among family and friends some of whom were very dear to him, there is a constant sense of aloofness in his words. However, that solitary life led for over eight decades has not blinded him from being observant towards those minute details of life which most of us ignore or hardly find worth paying attention to.
His writing has the ability to make us fall in love with mountains, hilly forests, gentle streams and the reader can't help but feel a longing for such places. In this book he paints a picture of India which has passed us by many decades ago.
When he makes a comparison of life in England to what it was in India by way of climatic condition among other things, he brings about the difference of human relations in a subtle way. The chilly English winds symbolise the chill of human relationship there while the warm climate of India represents the warmth of relationship here. This symbolism is not lost on the reader. No wonder the British boy decided to leave the land of his forefathers and return to the land he always called home.
Although it is a memoir, it is a semi - autobiographical one for the " Lone Fox Dancing" is his full fledged autobiography.
This book makes us realise how Ruskin Bond is England's loss and India's gain.
His writing has the ability to make us fall in love with mountains, hilly forests, gentle streams and the reader can't help but feel a longing for such places. In this book he paints a picture of India which has passed us by many decades ago.
When he makes a comparison of life in England to what it was in India by way of climatic condition among other things, he brings about the difference of human relations in a subtle way. The chilly English winds symbolise the chill of human relationship there while the warm climate of India represents the warmth of relationship here. This symbolism is not lost on the reader. No wonder the British boy decided to leave the land of his forefathers and return to the land he always called home.
Although it is a memoir, it is a semi - autobiographical one for the " Lone Fox Dancing" is his full fledged autobiography.
This book makes us realise how Ruskin Bond is England's loss and India's gain.
July 20, 2021
This is an autobiographical book, narrating Bond’s early life with his family in India (mostly Dehra and Shimla), short working life in UK before returning home to India. It is a chronicle until the publication of his first and famous book, ‘Room on the Roof’ at the age of twenty one.
It is written in that comfortable, conversational and warm style that one associates with Bond. Even when he is describing the angst of teenage years, anger against his close friends, disagreeable teachers or the strained relationship between his parents before his father’s early death due to illness, all the words are suffused with an inimitable warmth of spirit that make me think of lazy afternoon or late night conversations with close friends.
The book is also interspered with gems - pictures of his childhood, friends and family, extracts from his diary giving a rich insight into his relations with his friends, Romi, et al and ending with epistolary exchange between Bond’s agent, editors and reviewers of his first book. It is the last that I particularly loved as a treasure trove of advice and encouragement and gentle admonishment.
If you have time to spare and you want a gentle yet affectionate read, read this.
It is written in that comfortable, conversational and warm style that one associates with Bond. Even when he is describing the angst of teenage years, anger against his close friends, disagreeable teachers or the strained relationship between his parents before his father’s early death due to illness, all the words are suffused with an inimitable warmth of spirit that make me think of lazy afternoon or late night conversations with close friends.
The book is also interspered with gems - pictures of his childhood, friends and family, extracts from his diary giving a rich insight into his relations with his friends, Romi, et al and ending with epistolary exchange between Bond’s agent, editors and reviewers of his first book. It is the last that I particularly loved as a treasure trove of advice and encouragement and gentle admonishment.
If you have time to spare and you want a gentle yet affectionate read, read this.
January 9, 2023
A great book to cure me of the reading slump and starting the 2023 reading journey strong. The book was a breath of fresh air, as an aspiring writer now taking baby steps towards the big dream. It has the multitude of colours in the monotone of everyday life, but life nevertheless amongst the simpler folks untouched by the material sophistication. Folks who know to enjoy finer things in life and soak in sunshine . It also has accounts of the boyhood of India’s most loved storyteller and I found bits and pieces of Ruskin Bond’s characters shine in me, having spent my childhood buried in his writings. This book was the first autobiographical account I picked up and I must say, I was not disappointed.
July 24, 2024
A very lyrical and poignant, emotional and all things honey sweet memoir on bond's life, covering his life from when he was 10 to 20. Covers spaces from across dehradun, to delhi, to london and back to the beloved motherland. Such a beautiful, lucid , precise and well drafted memoir. Especially love those parts where he poetically and with such fragrance, describes his relation with his father and how they exchanged letters, stamps and postcards and how they both went out to pattiesseries and cinema🌿💖🌸
June 15, 2018
I'm rating it 4 just because I wanted to keep reading it. I have always loved Ruskin Bond's storytelling and this time I read his own story. The simplicity, the honesty and the understated tragedy and comedy in Bond's work have always charmed me.
January 10, 2022
A memoir that is truly written with all honesty and passionately, how to fend off his loneliness he sought his solace in the books and friends. It not only reflects the author's life but gives you a glimpse of India in the 1940s.
December 26, 2022
Maybe i dont like reading memoirs!
The storytelling, the narration i still somehow liked. But wasnt too intrigued.
Maybe my view will change after i have given some time to my mind to settle and recollect my thoughts about the author's life and this memoir
But till then its a 3/5
The storytelling, the narration i still somehow liked. But wasnt too intrigued.
Maybe my view will change after i have given some time to my mind to settle and recollect my thoughts about the author's life and this memoir
But till then its a 3/5
February 9, 2018
Didnt complete it.
But loved it while it lasted. Story gets boring in the middle somewhere.
But loved it while it lasted. Story gets boring in the middle somewhere.
June 16, 2018
This memoir deals with life of author till his 21st year. Along with his life, pictures and notes, letters are added in this book, gives insight to the life of author.
June 19, 2018
Its so simple, so beautiful, so touching, so funny !!!
The book like this one are so rare !!
The book like this one are so rare !!
November 16, 2023
Warm hug :)
3.5 Stars.
3.5 Stars.
Read
May 27, 2024A book that will never get old and boring no matter how many times you read it.
July 13, 2025
Ruskin Bond recollects his childhood and youth memories. #Scenesfromawriterslife #RuskinBond #Memoir #onedayread #oneweekread
November 7, 2025
Loved the simplicity of the book and how it told so many untold stories :) In love with Mr Bond’s writing again :)
June 7, 2016
Scenes from a WRITER’S LIFE
RUSKIN BOND
Although finished at last but unlike wish, it took too long time which does not happen usually like this. It happened due to having over burdened with professional commitment and time could not be spared for this. It is the reality wide prevailing that I got to read this in intermittent but overjoyed and indeed relished as and when engrossed myself while moving from one word to another and page after page. Whilst reading, there would have been no inkling about passing of time. As if those of cherished gone by days of childhood returned to life once again. Sometime, it seems that a long era has gone by of my life until but reading such books keeps me motivating and urge me not to surrender those of novice fragile wishes at the altar of meeting the demand of immediate having concern. I could not believe at all, yet such thing has resulted into. Reading in piecemeal has not been so pleasant as was supposed to be. Nevertheless, reality should be accepted with humility. Once again would like to enliven this by reading again, when having right sort of time.
As begun to read then it seemed that as if it was my childhood spent amidst tumultuousness. It was I who sometime thought to become writer but later seeing sort of difficulty being faced and having no immediate prospect, so far as having monetary concern. I took decision to move on different path but still somewhere nurturing this. Ruskin brings effervescent in his novel. He is really great that he so beautifully narrates about nature, yet it looks so innocent as well as charming. Like nature, his words look like so natural. There is spell casting depiction about trial and tribulation which has not been so easy. Way of writing has ever been so superub which is beyond one’s having imagination.
RUSKIN BOND
Although finished at last but unlike wish, it took too long time which does not happen usually like this. It happened due to having over burdened with professional commitment and time could not be spared for this. It is the reality wide prevailing that I got to read this in intermittent but overjoyed and indeed relished as and when engrossed myself while moving from one word to another and page after page. Whilst reading, there would have been no inkling about passing of time. As if those of cherished gone by days of childhood returned to life once again. Sometime, it seems that a long era has gone by of my life until but reading such books keeps me motivating and urge me not to surrender those of novice fragile wishes at the altar of meeting the demand of immediate having concern. I could not believe at all, yet such thing has resulted into. Reading in piecemeal has not been so pleasant as was supposed to be. Nevertheless, reality should be accepted with humility. Once again would like to enliven this by reading again, when having right sort of time.
As begun to read then it seemed that as if it was my childhood spent amidst tumultuousness. It was I who sometime thought to become writer but later seeing sort of difficulty being faced and having no immediate prospect, so far as having monetary concern. I took decision to move on different path but still somewhere nurturing this. Ruskin brings effervescent in his novel. He is really great that he so beautifully narrates about nature, yet it looks so innocent as well as charming. Like nature, his words look like so natural. There is spell casting depiction about trial and tribulation which has not been so easy. Way of writing has ever been so superub which is beyond one’s having imagination.
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