The India I Love

Bookish musings

I love the way Ruskin Bond thinks, and the way he writes. I love how he weaves his stories about places, things and people that he sees around him. I love how he pays attention to the small things around him that people usually ignore. I love how he is charmed by nature. I love his romantic and old-world way of living life. I love the way he thinks with his heart and not his head. Naturally, reading a book by Ruskin Bond is a treat for me. It felt the same with his The India I Love.

The India I Love is a collection of essays by Bond, basically written for children. The essays cover different aspects of life in India – the land, the rivers, the trees, the mountains, the people, the children, and so on. Interspersed with the essays are Bond’s poems about life – some funny, some thoughtful and pensive. There are a lot of snippets about his own life in many of the essays – you can see how Bond became the person that he is. In short, The India I Love is a collection of thoughts that Bond has penned down as he ambles through life in the mountains leisurely, stopping now and then to inhale the fresh air and smell the roses.

This book, too, is written in Bond’s characteristic way, with a lot of attention to detail, with his own unique insight into things, with descriptions so vivid that you can see the people and places that he describes in your mind’s eye.

Reading The India I Love is like someone wrapping a fluffy, warm blanket around you when you are feeling cold and lonely in the night. It is a wonderful respite from books in which something is always happening, and you race through the pages to keep track of the events. This one is a slow-paced yet charming book, meant to be savoured slowly, one chapter after another.

Would I recommend it? Definitely a yes.

32 thoughts on “The India I Love”

  1. I just love this book. I bought it at the book fair in Delhi and he was luckily the guest of honour there then and so I got it with his signature along with best wishes for me on the first page…. :p

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      1. If you want to meet him his house is open to all guests (speaking from personal experience again) – he offers tea to all his guests and you can sit and talk with him all you want. If he’s busy he may ask if you can come again some other time, and if you can, nothing like it. Try making your next vacation to meet him! 🙂

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      3. Yes, he stays in mussoorie… just ask any of the local there, they would know! You could also ask the rikshaw pullers etc… just try and stay clear from the traffic police as they tend to discourage visitors going there. It’s a pleasure to meet him in person. He’s such a nice person!

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  2. Yay ! RB, I love you love you love you love you ! 🙂 Such a cutie this cover!
    I will look for this one. I have ogled at this post long enough. I better stop before I go crazy 🙂

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  4. I never had a temptation to read Ruskin Bond. Can’t really pin point the reason. But this time I think I will at least give it a look at the book store.

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  6. I do not know why, but I’ve never been able to get myself to pick up Ruskin Bond. I have this feeling that it is only for kids! Would you suggest a book for me please?!

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    1. @Dreamer

      Blasphemy!! You are missing out on the work of a brilliant author, I tell you. 🙂

      Many of Ruskin Bond’s books are indeed for children, but not all. You could, maybe, start with his The Book of Nature or Notes From A Small Room.

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      1. Haha! Done! Included it in my to-read list!
        P.S. In case you’re interested in reading my travel chronicle, they are awaiting you! 🙂

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  8. oh 9+ you say? I was thinking this would be like waiting for such long time…so like you mentioned I can buy it for self and then read it Chirpy laters 🙂

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      2. @Chattywren

        As I said to RM, I am not sure about the age group this book is meant for. I do not have much experience with these things. 😉

        Sometimes, books meant for kids are suitable for adults, sometimes it is the other way around.

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    1. @R’s Mom

      Well, I read this book with great relish, so you definitely can too. 🙂 I picked it up from the children’s section of a bookstore, though. Not that bookstores always have books properly stacked in the right genres – now, that is a different issue. 🙂

      I think 9+ would be the right age group for this, though I could be wrong. I am not very good at that kind of stuff. 🙂

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