Skip to main content

Book Review: We Rode All the Way to Delhi by Ruskin Bond

It is a very short story through which Ruskin Bond brings back memories of his bicycling days when he was quite young. He along with two more friends, Somi and Azhar, rode to Delhi on bicycles. Probably they did for it fun and some adventure. That time cycling to such long distance was possible because roads were lined with trees and traffic was negligible. So, they could ride freely and rest wherever they wished to.

It took them three days to reach Delhi. They took shelter in Dhabas - ate and rested there. They would bicycle all day and rest at night. It was more like a caravan. The author’s regret is that they didn’t receive any medal or being welcomed by crowd. Cycling to such long distance is itself an achievement. By the time they reached Delhi, they were dusty and out of order of cleanliness. They crossed the old bridge, rode around the city, and camped on the Ridge. Next day they rose late, their bodies ached because of the tiredness they gathered. Thus, instead of cycling back to Dehra, they put their bicycles on a train and went home in style.

Ruskin has penned down this story in a very lovely and special way. It will surely remind people of their youth or teenage when taking crazy excursions on bicycle was normal to them. Well, today this trend is fading out. The story has been written in a sonnet (more of a poem like) style.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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
67 comments
Read more

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 conversation fo
63 comments
Read more

Poem Summary: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias is a short poem of fourteen lines written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The concurrent theme of the poem is that nothing remains intact and same forever in this world. Even the brightest of metal, one day decays with passage of time. The throne name of Egyptian King Ramesses is Ozymandias. It was his dearest desire to preserve himself forever by building a huge statue that he thought would never tumble down. Stanza 1: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; Summary: The poet narrates the poem through the eyes of a traveler who seems to have come back from a remote and far-away land, referring to Egypt. The traveler r
23 comments
Read more