Mohammad Zaved Siddiqui

“We said goodbye. ‘Remember this day, Ruskin,’ said my father. He patted me gently on the head and walked away. I never saw him again. Three months later I heard that he had passed away in the military hospital in Calcutta. I dream of him sometimes, and in my dream he is always the same, caring for me and leading me by the hand along old familiar roads.”
― Ruskin Bond, A Gathering of Friends: My Favourite Stories

“For what are obstacles to the lower creatures are opportunities to the higher life of man.”
― Rabindranath Tagore, Nationalism

“There are so many trees in the forest,’ said Rakesh, What’s so special about this tree? Why do we like it so much?’ ‘We planted it ourselves,’ said Grandfather. That’s why it’s special.’ ‘Just one small seed,’ said Rakesh, and he touched the smooth bark of the tree that he had grown. He ran his hand along the trunk of the tree and put his finger to the tip of a leaf. ‘I wonder,’ he whispered. ‘Is this what it feels to be God?”
― Ruskin Bond, A Gathering of Friends: My Favourite Stories

“Along its banks, for hundreds of miles, lived millions of people, and Sita was only one small girl among them, and no one had ever heard of her, no one knew her—except for the old man, the boy and the river.”
― Ruskin Bond, A Gathering of Friends: My Favourite Stories