Skip to main content

Book Review: The Elephant and the Cassowary Bird by Ruskin Bond

The Elephant and the Cassowary Bird by Ruskin Bond is a cute short story about the behavior of two animals: a baby elephant and a Cassowary bird. Whenever there is a mention of animals in the stories of Ruskin, his grandfather’s name appears inevitably. His grandpa has a natural talent in handling and understanding animals and even reptiles like python and chameleon. Grandpa is an animal lover who keeps many animals at his home while working at a zoo.


From his trip to Singapore, grandpa brings along a strange bird. It is Cassowary – something between Emu and Ostrich. It is taller than Emu but smaller than Ostrich. The bird is a center of attraction for many, since it is not found in India. Ruskin thinks how it will endure the subtropical temperature of Dehra, well it can if it was able to sustain in Indonesia and Bali.

There are many animals at home. There is also one baby elephant. This elephant circles around that bird every day to be friends with it. However, Cassowary is very hostile and cares least about others feelings and reactions. She kicked backward so forcibly that the baby elephant limped for a week or so. It was clear indication for the elephant that she isn’t looking for friends. After a few more days, the baby elephant goes once again to her. She lifts her one leg in preparation of kicking but before that can happen, the elephant with its trunk holds the other leg of the bird. The bird tumbles down miserably. Seeing her defeat, she gets up as nothing has happened and walks away calmly. Those who were watching laughed out loudly.

After some months, the baby elephant grows to a size of a bull. It is then transferred to the zoo. And the Cassowary continues to live there.

Comments

  1. What do the elephant and cassowary bird tell us about grandfather

    ReplyDelete
  2. the animals tells that he is a great animal lover

    ReplyDelete

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

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

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