Table Of ContentBond Collection for Adults
Falling in Love Again
No Man is an Island
The Very Best of Ruskin Bond
Ghost Stories from the Raj
falling in love again
Ruskin Bond has been writing for over sixty years, and has now over 120
titles in print—novels, collections of stories, poetry, essays, anthologies
and books for children. His first novel, The Room on the Roof, received the
prestigious John Llewellyn Rhys award in 1957. He has also received the
Padma Shri, and two awards from the Sahitya Akademi—one for his short
stories and another for his writings for children. In 2012, the Delhi
government gave him its Lifetime Achievement award.
Born in 1934, Ruskin Bond grew up in Jamnagar, Shimla, New Delhi and
Dehradun. Apart from three years in the UK, he has spent all his life in
India, and now lives in Mussoorie with his adopted family.
A shy person, Ruskin says he likes being a writer because 'When I'm
writing there's nobody watching me. Today, it's hard to find a profession
where you're not being watched!'
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To
Vishal and Rekha Bhardwaj,
great artistes,
wonderful people.
Contents
Introduction
The Eyes Have It
The Night Train at Deoli
Tribute to a Dead Friend
Love Is a Sad Song
Time Stops at Shamli
The Girl from Copenhagen
Binya Passes By
His Neighbour’s Wife
Susanna’s Seven Husbands
A Love of Long Ago
A Little Song of Love
We Must Love Someone
The Room on the Roof (Extract)
The Message of the Flowers
Delhi Is Not Far (Extract)
Who Kissed Me in the Dark?
Topaz
Love Lyrics for Binya Devi
On Fairy Hill
Acknowledgements
Introduction
I was going through the romantic poets, looking for a quote to head this
little introduction, but somehow the right sentiments eluded me. I guess
I’ve grown too old and jaded to go into raptures over Romeo and Juliet or
Laila and Majnu and their tragic ends; all too depressing! So I turned to
my old friend P.G. Wodehouse and came up with the following line, which
I felt was just right for me:
‘You know, the way love can change a fellow, is truly frightful to
contemplate.’
Wodehouse’s heroes usually make asses of themselves when they fall
in love, and so do most of us. Certainly I made an ass of myself time and
again (and still do), but when, in my twenties and thirties I sat down to
write about my broken heart, I took myself very seriously.
Falling in love is probably the best thing that can happen to a young
writer; it gives a certain spontaneity and intensity to his writing. Stories
such as ‘The Night Train at Deoli’, ‘The Eyes Have It’ and ‘Time Stops at
Shamli’ were written when I was in my early twenties, and have stood the
test of time quite well. Fifty years after they were written they still turn up
in anthologies aimed at both the young and the old.
In my thirties I came to live in the hills, and my love stories were now
greatly influenced by the world of nature. Thus, ‘Binya Passes By’ and
‘On Fairy Hill’ have a magical, other-worldly feeling about them.
The supernatural element also turns up occasionally in a lighter vein,
there is ‘The Girl from Copenhagen’ and ‘Who Kissed Me in the Dark?’
And sometimes, in a contemplative mood, I write the occasional poem.
I haven’t stopped writing about love. My life has been one long love
story, and I have loved people, I have loved books, I have loved flowers,
the sun, moon and stars, old roads, old trees, children, grannies, butterflies,
seashells, fairies... And of course I keep falling in love, for where love
begins, there is the border of heaven.
Ruskin Bond
January 2013
