Skip to main content

Book Review: The Story of Madhu by Ruskin Bond

The Story of Madhu is a short story written by Ruskin Bond, this story has been featured in ‘Rusty Comes Home’. It is a tale of two orphans. The narrator is on self-exile and feels no threads of love in his life; loneliness is probably his best companion.


A sweet young girl of about nine lingers around his house and he observes her from beneath the mango tree in his garden. After a few days an acquaintance has been formed between them. The girl is poor as she wears torn clothes and lives in a hut with an old lady, who is over a hundred years old. The name of the girl is Madhu and she was found on the banks of Tank by the old lady who then took her as a daughter.

The narrator arranges a teacher from nearby to teach Madhu under the mango tree for an hour so. He also gifts her various items and sometimes clothes. The narrator has formed compassion for her and wants her to grow in life. They soon become so friendly that she reads her lessons and asks numerous funny questions to him. When Madhu reaches the age of thirteen, she begins developing into a matured woman. And the narrator at any cost doesn’t want her to be alone and unprotected in the ruthless society. At this point the narrator can understand the pain of being an orphan and thinks of her safety and well-being.

He decides to put Madhu in a mission school to have a bright future of her. But she refuses to go as she has fallen in love with him and separation might depress her. But the narrator knows that the people of the society would raise fingers at him for being with a maturing girl. In the middle of June, in the spells of oppressive heat, one evening he does not see her in his garden. Next day he learns about her sickness, so he goes in the hut to see her, first time ever to her hut. There he realizes how poor she is. The hut is clean but has nothing extra except a pair of string cots. On one cot Madhu is lying in high fever. He holds her hand and she passes a smile upon seeing him. She asks him who will read stories for him and do work for him. He replies she will do all that, she will take care of him, no one else. Soon the narrator realizes that Madhu is dying and she is aware of that but the best thing is that she is not repenting about it. Then all of sudden as the day inches towards the evening, a bright gleam of sunlight streams in and at that moment Madhu passes away.

It is heart-breaking to note that a young and fragile Madhu passing away and the old lady who has lived over a hundred years is still out of the clutches of death. The mystery of death and life was instant and in one sense it can be concluded that the young Madhu bequeathed the old lady’s death. Her death fills the narrator’s heart with loneliness, he feels as the world’s entire loneliness has permeated in his heart. Ultimately death separates them and seeing a young girl dying is a sad thing to witness. It is a beautifully crafted story with a tragic end.
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 ...
68 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 conversatio...
65 comments
Read more

Character Sketch of Binya from ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond

The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond is a popular children’s story. It features Binya as the main character, though there are other important characters as well, but the story revolves around Binya and her little beautiful umbrella. The story is widely popular among children, thus it has also been included in the schools’ syllabus all across the country. Since it is often taught in the school, thus the character sketch of Binya is often demanded by students from year to year. Character Sketch of Binya from The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond Binya is the main character of the novel ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond. Her full name is Binyadevi. As in the hills or anywhere in India it is a kind of trend to call children with their short nicknames. Binya’s elder brother’s name is Bijju, whereas his real name is Vijay. Binya aged eleven is a hilly girl. She lives with her small family in the hills of Garhwal. Her father died when she was two years of age. For sustenance, the...
41 comments
Read more