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Writing for My Life: The Very Best of Ruskin Bond
Experience the very best of Ruskin Bond's writings in one book.
If only the world had no boundaries and we could move about without having to produce passports and documents everywhere, it really would be 'a great wide beautiful, wonderful world', says Ruskin Bond.
From his most loved stories to poems, memoirs and essays, Writing for My Life opens a window to the myriad worlds of Ruskin Bond, India's most loved author. Capturing dreams of childhood, anecdotes of Rusty and his friends, the Ripley-Bean mysteries, accounts of his life with his father and his adventures in Jersey and London among others, this book is full of beauty and joy-two things Ruskin's writing is mostly known for.
With a comprehensive introduction, this is the perfect gift to all the ardent readers and lovers of Ruskin's effervescent writing. A wide collection of carefully curated and beautifully designed stories, this book is a collector's edition.
If only the world had no boundaries and we could move about without having to produce passports and documents everywhere, it really would be 'a great wide beautiful, wonderful world', says Ruskin Bond.
From his most loved stories to poems, memoirs and essays, Writing for My Life opens a window to the myriad worlds of Ruskin Bond, India's most loved author. Capturing dreams of childhood, anecdotes of Rusty and his friends, the Ripley-Bean mysteries, accounts of his life with his father and his adventures in Jersey and London among others, this book is full of beauty and joy-two things Ruskin's writing is mostly known for.
With a comprehensive introduction, this is the perfect gift to all the ardent readers and lovers of Ruskin's effervescent writing. A wide collection of carefully curated and beautifully designed stories, this book is a collector's edition.
- GenresShort Stories
560 pages, Paperback
Published March 1, 2022
10 people are currently reading
66 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 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 14, 2021
Reading (and re-reading) Ruskin Bond is like visiting your favourite places again. This collection of his best is deeply personal as well as highly reflective of the oeuvre of the writer, including a series of comforting horror stories.
January 29, 2022
This is a lovely anthology of short stories by Ruskin Bond. This book has stories from his own life, as well as some of his other short stories. As did Bond, his characters move across India and England, through Darjeeling, Mussoorie, Dehradun, Delhi and Shimla. Most of his personal stories in this book are set in a post-independent India. His stories convey the diasporic conflict in him as he spends time in London, only to evoke his effervescent love for India, something that is palpable all across his writing.
His writing comes off as extremely genuine and easy to read, blessed with an innate beauty in his prose; describing regular, prosaic Indian events with realistic detail. All of his fictionalized characters also seem to be heavily inspired from his own experiences, so the overall reading experience stays enriched. Often, while reading some of the story plots, it's hard to imagine ending a short story at where he does, but even then, he manages to bring such an effective closure with his lines. While not all stories end very positively, his writing is extremely warm and comforting to read.
Strongly recommended read.
His writing comes off as extremely genuine and easy to read, blessed with an innate beauty in his prose; describing regular, prosaic Indian events with realistic detail. All of his fictionalized characters also seem to be heavily inspired from his own experiences, so the overall reading experience stays enriched. Often, while reading some of the story plots, it's hard to imagine ending a short story at where he does, but even then, he manages to bring such an effective closure with his lines. While not all stories end very positively, his writing is extremely warm and comforting to read.
Strongly recommended read.
November 7, 2021
This collection in 9 sections brings out the works of Ryskin Bond about his life, mountains, and stories that he published earlier on various topics. The cover design is amazing.
June 12, 2022
One has to tread lightly when reviewing a book by one of India’s most beloved and prolific writers. I also have a personal appreciation (though distant) for Ruskin Bond, having grown up in Mussoorie, and seen him on occasion on the hillside.
That said, this book brought me full circle on my views on Bond’s writing. My general view going into this was that Bond’s writing (along with writers of a particular generation) is focused on creating a simple (but not necessarily simplistic) world that is light and nostalgic, and that the story structure often takes a hit. I think I conclude feeling the same at the end of this collection.
The first section, for example, is titled ‘Dreams of Childhood,’ and the tone often seems as that of an adult reimagining how a child thinks. This tone - simplistic, constructed innocence, sentimental, nostalgic - seemed to have been common among Indian writers of the time, perhaps an emulation of British writers, and it feels contrived at times.
Bond himself acknowledges this, writing, “William disagreed with everything I wrote or said; I was too sentimental, too whimsical, too descriptive. He was probably right, but I preferred to write in the manner that gave me the maximum amount of enjoyment.” (P. 275)
Yet, one also sees honesty, depth and sadness in some parts of the writing, wrapped within his endearing impressionistic, personal and personable style of storytelling - a bit like a favorite uncle at the end of a nice dinner.
The most honest segments are the autobiographical ones, including ‘Life with my Father,’ where he explains the challenges of living in a broken home. Bond writes: “I don’t suppose I would have written so much about childhood or even about other children if my own childhood had been all happiness and light. I find that those who have had contented, normal childhoods, seldom remember much about them; nor do they have much insight into the world of children.”
Bond also says that it was on seeing his father making money from his stamp collection that he realized “That it was possible to make money out of one’s hobby was something I was to remember when writing became my passion.”
Easily, my favorite story in this collection is ‘Sita and the River,’ which could be read today as a parable on climate change, and yet was written (I assume) well before the topic was in vogue. The story uses the same devices of nostalgia, melancholy,
Innocent-it’s characters, and yet avoids traps common in other stories. More broadly, it speaks to the simplicity and perils of lives not driven by ambition and the incessant search for meaning. “Some of the moving forces in our lives are meant to touch us briefly and go their way…” (p. 378)
Bond’s English heritage comes through strongly (obviously) and one thinks that at least some part of his success - aside from the great volume and his clearly strong work ethic - is connected with an urban Indian fascination with the aspirational lifestyle he represents. In a story about a Ms Kellner, Bond writes about meringues, lemon tarts, and marzipans - all items which I’m certain were out of reach for most Indians - particularly at the time the stories were written.
Conversely, Bond himself experiences the difficulties of being just another Britisher, or worse, a Britisher associated with India in the section titled ‘Jersey and London.’ He writes of loneliness, doing menial jobs, dullness, and blatant racism in the tourist industry (he got fired for booking a room for Brazilians in an implicitly whites-only hotel).
In ‘A Handful of Nuts,’ the longest of the stories, Bond’s description of the night is evocative: “He was terrified of walking down the narrowlane to his house once darkness had fallen. There were no lights and the overhanging mango, neem and peepul trees made it a place of Stygian gloom. It was said that a woman had hanged herself from a mango tree on this very lane,and Jai was always in a dither lest he should see the lady dangling in front of him…. On the way back, I would bump into other pedestrians who would be stumbling along the lane, guided by slivers of moonlight or the pale glimmer from someone's window…. I had taught myselfto use whatever the night offered-moonlight, full and partial; starlight; the light from street lamps, from windows, from half-open doors. The night is beautiful, made ugly only by the searing headlights of cars.” (P. 245)
‘Binya Passes By’ is an odd story of Bond’s infatuation with a 15 year old girl. If it were acceptable at some time, it certainly doesn’t seem to have aged well now.
Some nice lines:
“Bad news spreads as fast as a good fire” (p. 472$)
“The hill station, with all its glitter, was just a pretty gift box with nothing inside” (p. 484)
“I’ll work on my land. It’s better to grow things on the land, than to blast things out of it” (p. 495)
“Some of the best sounds are made by water. The water of a mountain stream, always in a hurry, bubbling over rocks…the sound of sea, especially when it’s far away…water gushing out of the pans of an old well outside a village” (p. 542)
That said, this book brought me full circle on my views on Bond’s writing. My general view going into this was that Bond’s writing (along with writers of a particular generation) is focused on creating a simple (but not necessarily simplistic) world that is light and nostalgic, and that the story structure often takes a hit. I think I conclude feeling the same at the end of this collection.
The first section, for example, is titled ‘Dreams of Childhood,’ and the tone often seems as that of an adult reimagining how a child thinks. This tone - simplistic, constructed innocence, sentimental, nostalgic - seemed to have been common among Indian writers of the time, perhaps an emulation of British writers, and it feels contrived at times.
Bond himself acknowledges this, writing, “William disagreed with everything I wrote or said; I was too sentimental, too whimsical, too descriptive. He was probably right, but I preferred to write in the manner that gave me the maximum amount of enjoyment.” (P. 275)
Yet, one also sees honesty, depth and sadness in some parts of the writing, wrapped within his endearing impressionistic, personal and personable style of storytelling - a bit like a favorite uncle at the end of a nice dinner.
The most honest segments are the autobiographical ones, including ‘Life with my Father,’ where he explains the challenges of living in a broken home. Bond writes: “I don’t suppose I would have written so much about childhood or even about other children if my own childhood had been all happiness and light. I find that those who have had contented, normal childhoods, seldom remember much about them; nor do they have much insight into the world of children.”
Bond also says that it was on seeing his father making money from his stamp collection that he realized “That it was possible to make money out of one’s hobby was something I was to remember when writing became my passion.”
Easily, my favorite story in this collection is ‘Sita and the River,’ which could be read today as a parable on climate change, and yet was written (I assume) well before the topic was in vogue. The story uses the same devices of nostalgia, melancholy,
Innocent-it’s characters, and yet avoids traps common in other stories. More broadly, it speaks to the simplicity and perils of lives not driven by ambition and the incessant search for meaning. “Some of the moving forces in our lives are meant to touch us briefly and go their way…” (p. 378)
Bond’s English heritage comes through strongly (obviously) and one thinks that at least some part of his success - aside from the great volume and his clearly strong work ethic - is connected with an urban Indian fascination with the aspirational lifestyle he represents. In a story about a Ms Kellner, Bond writes about meringues, lemon tarts, and marzipans - all items which I’m certain were out of reach for most Indians - particularly at the time the stories were written.
Conversely, Bond himself experiences the difficulties of being just another Britisher, or worse, a Britisher associated with India in the section titled ‘Jersey and London.’ He writes of loneliness, doing menial jobs, dullness, and blatant racism in the tourist industry (he got fired for booking a room for Brazilians in an implicitly whites-only hotel).
In ‘A Handful of Nuts,’ the longest of the stories, Bond’s description of the night is evocative: “He was terrified of walking down the narrowlane to his house once darkness had fallen. There were no lights and the overhanging mango, neem and peepul trees made it a place of Stygian gloom. It was said that a woman had hanged herself from a mango tree on this very lane,and Jai was always in a dither lest he should see the lady dangling in front of him…. On the way back, I would bump into other pedestrians who would be stumbling along the lane, guided by slivers of moonlight or the pale glimmer from someone's window…. I had taught myselfto use whatever the night offered-moonlight, full and partial; starlight; the light from street lamps, from windows, from half-open doors. The night is beautiful, made ugly only by the searing headlights of cars.” (P. 245)
‘Binya Passes By’ is an odd story of Bond’s infatuation with a 15 year old girl. If it were acceptable at some time, it certainly doesn’t seem to have aged well now.
Some nice lines:
“Bad news spreads as fast as a good fire” (p. 472$)
“The hill station, with all its glitter, was just a pretty gift box with nothing inside” (p. 484)
“I’ll work on my land. It’s better to grow things on the land, than to blast things out of it” (p. 495)
“Some of the best sounds are made by water. The water of a mountain stream, always in a hurry, bubbling over rocks…the sound of sea, especially when it’s far away…water gushing out of the pans of an old well outside a village” (p. 542)
February 1, 2022
This book feels like home.❤️
July 9, 2022
Ruskin Bond for me, will always be a five star, no matter which book of his I read. Somehow, his stories have such a thick environmental feature to it. Opening up a story in the foothills of himalaya will transport you right there. Not for a moment, does his writing seem fake or outlandish. For me, ruskin bond stories are a source of comfort and nostalgia. A piece of me, like the scarves i knit or the friends I make. Even in a foreign land, if something could make me feel instantly better and comforted, it would be a ruskin bond story.
May 6, 2023
I just love Ruskin Sir's writing. His writing style has simplicity yet an engaging quality in it. His writings can take their readers to the very experience of life that the author is trying to convey through his works.
January 17, 2022
This is my first Ruskin Bond, Loved the book and his writing style. I have been to dehra dun recently for my trek.
January 28, 2022
The book has a calming sense of nature of Uttrakhand as it is the special element as it is the leading part in Ruskin's Books
August 28, 2023
A really good book with the best writing of Ruskin Bond and my book is autographed, a cherry on the cake.
June 28, 2024
Beautiful and nostalgic stories
May 31, 2025
Ruskin Bond in his element that feels like a cup of coffee on a cold evening💕
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews