Book Review: Getting Granny’s Glasses by Ruskin Bond

Getting Granny’s Glasses is a short story by Ruskin Bond based on the tender relationship between maternal grandmother and her grandson Mani, an eleven-year old boy. His mother passed when he was one year old. Since then, Mani and his father are both under the care of grandma. She is seventy but performs all the chores of home as she is a young energetic girl. She has blurred vision but is able to make out roads to the home and other objects of need in the kitchen and elsewhere.

Though she dons a pair of glasses but they are well over ten years. The pair is dull because of spots and scratches. Mani and his father have been forcing her to replace the glasses but she is hesitant to do that. If she goes with his father then Mani will be left behind and with the second proposition she thinks that Mani is too young to accompany her till the eye hospital in Mussoorie.

Major difficulty is how to travel till Mussoorie, which is the only nearest place from their village for an eye hospital. First they have to travel on foot till Nain – approximately ten miles and then to Mussoorie by bus, another twelve miles. Despite all odds, Mani agrees to company her. They set on the journey with a heart for adventures. After a night’s overstay in Nain, they pursue their journey on a bus. However, soon the bus is stuck owing to landslide. Either they can go back or hike another ten miles till Mussoorie. They prefer to walk through the mountains till they reach Mussoorie. There they face a few problems as they were being short on cash but somehow they manage and get the new pair of glasses for granny. Before coming back they shop and granny enjoys the scenic beauty of the hills as she is able to see everything quite clearly.

Like many other stories of Ruskin Bond, this story discusses the level of difficulties that hill people undergo for procuring basic things like hospital, medicines, normal shopping and so on. The story is also of the opinion that bonding and relationship among hill people are deep and substantial – not shallow like the people of plain.

Comments

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...

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 ...

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...

Kevein Books and Reviews

Search This Blog