Author: Ruskin Bond
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 141
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0670911704
Description
The habit of keeping a diary has led me into trouble more than once, writes Ruskin Bond in the introduction to this journal of a year in his hometown of Landour, Mussoorie. Bond is an inveterate diarist, but over the years he finds that the nature of what he wants to record has changed, for ‘In the autumn of my life, I grow reflective.
The events are small in themselves: the daily happenings in Landour, the birds and flowers that each season brings, and the eccentricities of friends and family. Landour itself is a magical world-where every month has its own flower, every walker his own style, and the countryside is filled with a beauty all its own-though uninvited guests will intrude and evenings at the Savoy Bar are not always as peaceful as they might be. But in his mind Bond ranges further afield. He ponders on the experience of being a writer, on writers he has known and those he loves reading, and on critics, handwriting and typewriters.
Filled with warmth and gentle humour, this book captures the timeless rhythm of life in the mountains, and the serene wisdom of one of India’s best loved writers.
A tiny warbler (Tikkell’s yellow warbler, perhaps) came in at the window and couldn’t find its way out. Tired from beating its wings against the glass, it allowed itself to be taken by Siddharth in his hand. When we went outside, it remained seated on Sid’s finger for some time, before suddenly realizing that it was free. It darted into the plum tree, and then into the oak forest, where presumably it rejoined its fellow warblers.
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INTRODUCTION
SUMMER
April
May
June
MONSOON
July
August
AUTUMN
September
October
WINTER
November
December
January
February
March