Have you gone through the writings of Ruskin Bond, his novellas, essays, poetry, short stories, long stories and his autobiographies. I have studied a story "The Kite Maker" written by Mr. Ruskin Bond in my intermediate English prose book. This single story had made a deep impact on my mind, that I have became a great fan of him.
Some of stories written by him have became a legend. I remember my childhood days, when my elder sister used to tell us the horror stories during night. My elder sister used to study in "Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya" and she got only two months in a whole year which she spend with us, that is summer vacation. Each year, we used to wait for our summer vacation desperately. At that time I was only six or seven year old but listening those horror stories made us too frightened that we glued to our bed under the blanket. In those days, we didn't think about the writer of these stories, because that was not as important as the stories for us. We imagined the words of stories in our mind in the form of a film and horrified. One of the remarkable story was "A Face in the Dark" written by Mr. Bond. In my childhood days, my sister had told us this same story without telling us the name and title of story writer.
It is only after, I has brought the "Omnibus- The dust on the Mountains" a story collection book written by Mr. Bond, I found this story, 'A Face in the Dark'. And I tell you, 'what a pleasure full experience that was;;'. The stories, which we had listened in Hindi by my sister such a long time ago, was actually written by Mr. Bond. These horror story had inculcated in my mind to such extent as it is as fresh as even today.
Frankly speaking, Mr. Bond is a short story writer, but he is a great poet too. He has written a number of sweet rhymes and poems. One of which is-
"As I walked home last night
I saw a lone fox dancing
In the cold moonlight.
I stood and watched. Then
Took the low road, knowing
The night was his by right.
Sometimes, when words ring true,
I'm like a lone fox dancing
In the morning dew."
(From-'From Small Beginings')
"I wonder where the green grass went?
All buried under new cement.
I wonder where the birds have flown?
They've gone to find another home.
I wonder where the footpath's gone?
Right underneath your car, my son.
I wonder where the old folks go?
The nursing home will surely know.
What grows so fast before my eyes?
A garbage dump, a million flies.
Is this the place you celebrate?
In prose you made it sound so great;
It was...before I knew it's fate."
(From-'A Town Called Dehra')
"Remember the long ago when we lay together
In a pain of tenderness and counted
Our dreams: long summer afternoons
When the whistling-thrush released
A deep sweet secret on the trembling air;
Blackbird on the wing, bird of the forest shadows,
Black rose in the long ago summer,
This was your song:
It isn't time that's passing by,
It is you and I."
(From-'Love is a Sad Song)'
"We three,
We're not a crowd;
We are not even company-
My echo,
My shadow,
And me..."
(From-'Whistling in the Dark')