reading ruskin on the train

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when i am tired and frustrated, whihc i am very often these days, i take up reading ruskin bond. one of very good writers..i ahve always envied the life he lived..the houses he had in the middle of the mountains..the rains, the squirrels, his adopted family..whoa..when i read ruskin..i am reminded of 'country roads by john denver'
country roads take me home to the place i belong..
radio reminds me of my home far away...

listening to radio on a rainy day makes me feel nostalgic!! it takes me to school days, open ground, the bronze bell, the canteen steps, the pav bhaji queue and gopalvan..the podar katta, sipping chai at gul, the big tree and even bigger gang..

those were the days my friends, we thought they would never end....

you dont have to be intelligent to understand bond but yes senstivity is a must for he does not write about great things.
his stories revolve around simple people form the mountains, who have very ordinary lives, daily issues and conflicts.

that is what i like about bond, narratives about ordinary people..look around and you have a story about the boy who loses his father, about a lost love and finding it in Shamli, about trees and hills about lives we dont know, we will never know and they will also fade into oblivion..

ruskin makes me feel nice baout life..he has a way of writng that lets you read into a setting, a life different from your own..well you may argue thats what reading is supposed to..true and i am not presenting a case about bond here..

all this is an attempt at understanding myself..and as he writes he comes up with some very good lines like "he is the strongest, who stands alone". in the 'most beautiful he writes, "ugly is just a word, like beauty. they mean different things to different people. what did the poet say, 'beauty is truth, truth is beauty' but if beauty and truth are the same why have different words? there are no absolutes except for life and death"

i think its his simplicity that makes me adore him..
so there ruskin remains my companion on the train taking me with him to the place he belong...makes me yearn for a life he lives..

Comments

Anonymous said…
love ruskin bond.. grew up reading him and still cant get over him.. he is too good. me is trying and hoping that i can live like that.. a bit hermit like existence

Supriya
9:28 AM
derozio said…
I dont read books as we all know..well written rids is that shamli or shimla ;p miss school and pav bhaji :( did u get the ganpati pics?
9:07 PM
rydhun said…
its Shamli!
11:56 AM
rydhun said…
http://bohemebelle.livejournal.com/84974.html?view=403950#t403950


its a link to supis blog..she has written about Ruskin
12:29 PM
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