Ruskin Bond, The Greatest Children’ Writer

By Author: martin well
Total Articles: 364
Comment this article

Ruskin Bond is an Indian author of British descent. Ruskin Bond has carved out a niche for himself by writing for grownups as well as children. His father instilled in him the love for books by buying him different categories of books. He also encouraged him to write down short descriptions about Nature as he took Ruskin Bond on hikes. Since Ruskin Bond has spent most of his life in hill stations, we can see in his writings his deep love for Nature.

Ruskin Bond Books
Ruskin Bond books include novels, short stories, essays, travelogues, songs, prose as well as poems. The following are some of the books that he has written in various categories.

Novels
* Room on the Roof
* Susanna's Seven Husbands
* A Flight of Pigeons
* The Road to the Bazar
* Once Upon a Monsoon Time
* "The India I love"

Collections
* Tiger in the House
* Garland of Memories
* Night Train at Deoli
* Rain in the Mountains - Notes from the Himalayas
* Our Trees Still Grow ...
... in Dehra
* A Season of Ghosts

Short stories
* Delhi Is Not Far
* The Woman on Platform 8
* Dust on the Mountains
* The Road to Shimla
* Ranji's Wonderful Bat
* Rusty Runs Away
* The Blue Umbrella
* Granny's Tree Climbing
* Mountains of Dehra
* The Kite Maker

Though all of his books received critical acclaim, three of his works have been made into movies. Let’s look at these in detail.

A Flight of Pigeons
Set in 1857, it narrates the story of Ruth Labadoor who witnesses the killing of her father by the rebels in a church. Her mother seeks the help of her husband’ friend Lala Ramjimal who provides them shelter and security. Javed Khan, the Patan leader comes to know of this and kidnaps both Ruth and her mother. He takes them to his home where they are warmly welcomed by Javed Khan’ family members. Meanwhile, Javed Khan falls in Love with Ruth Labadoor and seeks her hand. However, her mother opposes to this and puts a condition that if he and the rebels are able to defeat the Britishers, she would consent to the marriage. Javed Khan agrees to this and tries to win the battle but he is killed.

Blue Umbrella
It is a children’ novel that tells the story of Biniya, who exchanges her leopard claw necklace for a beautiful blue umbrella. She lives in a poor village where the richest person is a shopkeeper who has an old ruined shop with no refrigerator for keeping Coca Cola bottles. Hence, she becomes a celebrity for owning a blue umbrella. One day the umbrella goes missing. A few days later, the shopkeeper shows to the villagers his new red umbrella but the villagers later realize that the umbrella is the stolen umbrella and that it has been dyed in red. The shopkeeper’s image is tarnished but Biniya gives the umbrella to the shopkeeper and gets in return a bear claw necklace. The movie of the same name won the National Award for Best Children's film.

Susanna’ Seven Husbands
As the name implies, it narrates the story of Susanna. She yearns for love and marries 7 times but she kills all her husbands as they all suffered from a fatal flaw.

These books and others are available at bookstores and online books shops. If you buy books online, you will get his books at discount rates.

Read more on - Online valentine gifts, Best valentines day gifts