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Book Review: The Crooked Tree by Ruskin Bond

The Crooked Tree by Ruskin Bond is a short story about beating the distressing time in life. After having spent some years in Delhi; Rusty, the struggling writer, longs to feel fresh air and see the mountains, so he comes down to Shahganj. He lives in a small room and has friendship with some of the local guys, like Deep Chand, the barber.



One morning on a walk, he finds a man lying between the farm fields. He helps him with sups of water and then asks him for taking medicine and tells him to live with him. The guy is Ketan. He often gets the fits of epileptic which keeps him in a weak state. He is a student of high school and hopes to clear the examination this year. He is hopeful that education will bring a promising career for him, so that he can apply for the posts like clerk, etc. He attends the school in day and in the evening he works in a cloth shop. He is an orphan, so there is no one who can support him logistically. He had lost his parents in the heat of partition at Amritsar railway station. He doesn’t know whether his parents are dead or lost? First, he begged on the streets after running from a refugee camp. When he became a boy of eight, he started working for his sustenance.

On morning Rusty finds him sleeping on the verandah outside his home. So he takes him in and they begin living together in solitude. Rusty always felt life and death shuttling frantically in his eyes. He always felt he may die anytime. He plays flute wonderfully. He plays flute in the street and when children gather to see him performing he gains confidence. Which is a good sign otherwise he remains dejected since he unexpectedly gets fits and people make fun of him. The character of Ketan in this story is similar to Suraj of ‘Delhi is not Far’.

On the day of result, Rusty gets up before him to go straight to the newspaper agency to check about his results. He does not find his roll number in any of the newspapers. He comes home dejectedly, by seeing the sadness on Rusty’s face Ketan comes to know that he has not cleared the exams but he says optimistically that he will pass the exams next year. This way he will get one more year to study. This statement gladdens Rusty as he finds Ketan more positive than him. It is good news that Ketan has learnt to live life happily.
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  1. UnknownJune 25, 2019 at 5:21 AM

    these two's bromance got me feeling like and it was just wholesome like idk what i expected but i did find myself getting excited when i heard the name ''ketan'' in later chapters of ''rusty comes home'' and i found myself unconciously longing for these two to reuinte or something but that didnt happen

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 21, 2024 at 12:51 AM

    It's Kamal and not Ketan, right?

    ReplyDelete

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