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Book Review: At Green’s Hotel by Ruskin Bond

At Green’s Hotel is a short story covered in the book ‘Secrets’ by Ruskin Bond. In this story Ruskin describes his early life in Dehra where he used to come to spend winter vacation from Shimla’s boarding school. His step father had been away – actually he had disappeared – and his mom has had really difficult time managing finances of the home. She had taken up a job in a shanty hotel called Green. In 1930s the hotel had had its best ever possible days otherwise it was in shackles and the owner who had another business in Delhi was least cared about it.


Most of the workers there had been without salary for over three months. His mother was getting four hundred rupees monthly. Instead of the servant quarters, Ruskin was given a small room in the hotel. Though the business of the hotel was fiddling, also the hotel’s facilities and interiors were in dire need of revamp. The hotel was never occupied to its limit. However, Mrs. Deeds family, poor Anglo-Indian, had been staying there for quite some time and their bills were always due because of many reasons. The family would fight so often

Around the same time ‘The Daryaganj Strangler’ was becoming famous in the crime world. He was a serial killer who would strangulate rich women to rob off their jewelry and other precious items. After the murder and robbery he would leave the note saying: “Go to ditch, you rich bitch”. The criminal was famous in Delhi and it was least likely that he would victimize the women of a small town like Dehra. The hotel was on sale since some time, however attractive deal was yet to come. Mrs. Gupta, a superrich woman laced with gold and other jewelry, one day arrived at the hotel. She took the most expensive suit and also talked about buying the hotel for converting it into a mental hospital.

After a few days, the hotel received another guest as Captain Ramesh. Ramesh was a good looking man. He told he was going to a posting somewhere up in the mountains and stay in Dehradun was for a few days. Ruskin became friends with him and every evening they would go for movie. However, he would disappear for some time during the movie duration. Ruskin was worried about that but he didn’t pay attention. Not only this, Ramesh was a big-hearted person; he gifted one new radio set to Ruskin. On the night of his departure to Amritsar, he offered drinks to everyone presented in the hotel and also paid handsome tips to workers and paid the due amount of Mrs. Deeds. Ruskin and one tongawala escorted him to the station. He was gone.

Once they were back, the news of Mrs. Gupta’s murder shocked them. She was strangulated and no jewelry was found over her body. After investigation it came out that Ramesh was that serial killer from Delhi. Ruskin thought about his kindness that he showered on him. He was bemused to know that he killed so many women…not a real captain. The hotel was in shock and Ruskin went back to Shimla to his school.
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