Skip to main content

Book Review: That Week in the Jungle by Ruskin Bond

Whenever young Ruskin goes to jungle with a group of shikaris on expedition, he stumbles upon books. This story is also based on the similar lines. In the winter of 1944, Ruskin Bond was eight years old when he went to the jungle on an expedition with his mother and stepfather. Today this jungle is known as Rajaji sanctuary, located between Hardwar and Dehradun.


Ruskin doesn’t like killing of animals. Thus, he doesn’t appreciate shikaris or poachers. Well, this time he has been compelled to go on an expedition. On the first day, he is persuaded to sit on an elephant. It takes him deep into the forest. They are going deep into the forest, all of sudden a spotted deer crosses their way. Suddenly, the shikari sitting beside him begins firing at the deer. The deer struggles for some time and then moves a few steps before flopping down in the dust. Its struggle unnerves the elephant. It turns from the spot and begins running pell-mell, crashing through small trees and shrubs. The branch of a tree catches him across the face and almost sweeps him off the elephant. Fortunately, the mahout gets it under the control and young Ruskin receives a few scratches.

Next day, Ruskin declines the offer for an excursion and stays back with the khansama in the rest house. While exploring the rest house, he comes across a wall cupboard with a couple of shelves full of books. The first book he takes out is of P.G. Wodehouse’s Love among the Chickens. This book has nothing to do with hunting wild fowls. Rather, it is a romantic comedy about chicken farming, and it features the incorrigible Stanley F. Ukridge, one of the most popular characters of P.G. Wodehouse. From this character, Ruskin learns resilience. He finishes the book in a day.

In the evening, shikaris return home with a couple of partridges. They are distraught and tired. Next day, leaving Ruskin home, they go out again. He is happy and free to explore the bookshelf and its literary treasures. The second book he opens is of M.R. James’ Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, a set of stories about supernatural powers. These tales are meant for adult readers with some sort of academic background, but Ruskin has no difficulty in reading them. This book nudges him to read and explore more about the writers specialized in ghost stories. By reading these ghost writers only Ruskin has now become a perfect writer for murder mysteries and ghost stories.

This Ruskin Bond book informs us about the events that led him to be a reader and then a writer.

Enjoyed reading this story! Here is your chance to read 30 best stories by Ruskin Bond - https://goo.gl/uBeMY6

Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 11, 2018 at 2:35 AM

    Can u plz send q..ans based on these stories ..... Ths book is in class

    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
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