Skip to main content

Book Review: At Sea with Uncle Ken by Ruskin Bond

Rusty lives in Dehradun with his mother and Uncle Ken. Being the only brother of his five sisters, Uncle Ken is spoilt well beyond a limit. He is bumbling, humorous and madly inclined at eccentricities. If he isn’t looking for troubles, then troubles find him unwittingly. At sixteen Rusty graduates from High School and his mother plans to send him to England. For his mother, Rusty a little too young to make a voyage to England alone, so she assigns the duty to his brother, Ken.


Rusty’s grandmother pays Uncle Ken’s ticket, in a sense it is a free trip for him. While going to Bombay by train, accidentally Uncle Ken picks up someone else’s spectacles which cause him nearsightedness and as a result he takes the stationmaster for a porter and instructs him to look after their luggage.

Having tight on budget, Uncle Ken and Rusty stay at a sleazy hotel where they share the toilet with twenty other people. It is turning out to be an unpleasant experience for Rusty. Before boarding the posh P&O Liner, Uncle Ken remains sick and pukes out several times. On the ship Rusty goes all over the deck to observe people and keenly watches the surging sea; however, Uncle Ken is down with seasickness and prefers to remain inside. Rusty befriends an Indian fortune-teller while Uncle Ken is struck by the beauty of a blonde.  The blonde hails from Australia, heading to London to pursue a career in music. She plays piano at the lounge. Uncle Ken doesn’t like Classics but he still keenly watches her performance and practice sessions. Soon they become friends.

When the ship anchors at Port Said, they both go ashore leaving Rusty back on the ship. In the evening all passengers on board the ship except his uncle. From the girl Rusty comes to know that Uncle Ken was separated at the busy market. When the ship leaves the port, Rusty deciphers a figure frantically waving at the ship: it was his uncle. Rusty reaches London safely without Uncle Ken as his chaperone. There Rusty lives with his aunt and works for four years before returning to India.

Upon reaching the Dehradun railway station, Rusty finds Uncle Ken waiting for him. There he explains about his days and struggle that took place in Port Said. Uncle Ken first worked in a Greek restaurant and then as a tour guide at the pyramids. Having caught without papers, he was sent to Aden where he taught English to a son of Sheikh. From there the Sheikh’s son went to England and he got the ticket for India. He remained lost for two years.

Back in Dehradun Uncle Ken proposes a plan to start a poultry farm in partnership with Rusty but Rusty refuses knowing that Uncle Ken never sticks to one job.

Rollicking with humour ‘At Sea with Uncle Ken’ by Ruskin Bond is a light and delicious read.

Labels:
Location: New Delhi, India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike.  This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversatio...
65 comments
Read more

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should ...
68 comments
Read more

Character Sketch of Binya from ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond

The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond is a popular children’s story. It features Binya as the main character, though there are other important characters as well, but the story revolves around Binya and her little beautiful umbrella. The story is widely popular among children, thus it has also been included in the schools’ syllabus all across the country. Since it is often taught in the school, thus the character sketch of Binya is often demanded by students from year to year. Character Sketch of Binya from The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond Binya is the main character of the novel ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond. Her full name is Binyadevi. As in the hills or anywhere in India it is a kind of trend to call children with their short nicknames. Binya’s elder brother’s name is Bijju, whereas his real name is Vijay. Binya aged eleven is a hilly girl. She lives with her small family in the hills of Garhwal. Her father died when she was two years of age. For sustenance, the...
41 comments
Read more