Book Review: Cold Beer at Chutmalpur by Ruskin Bond

Cold Beer at Chutmalpur by Ruskin Bond is a short story covered in the book ‘A song of Many Rivers’, where author has collected short stories that have been occurred around the rivers or canals or lakes of the Himalaya. In these stories he has put water bodies as a central theme.

In this story the narrator first describes a town called Chutmalpur which lies between Dehradun and Delhi. During the heat of May, while coming back to Dehra he finds a big board saying Cold Beer. The board was as big as the shop. People coming from Delhi – may be exhausted of travelling on a dusty road – may find beer a welcome refresh. After this, the author describes the Sunday market of this town. Then he sees Book Seller on a board, upon going there he finds that the shop is full of exercise books and he is the distributor of those books. The narrator thought that there he may find something of his use but there was nothing as per his interest. Probably, shopkeeper in Chutmalpur do not have proper hoarding.

There in the shop he comes across a bust of Sir Proby Cautley who conceived and built the Ganga Canal, which starts at Haridwar and passes through Roorkee on its way across the Doab. The narrator believes that Cautley and his achievements are lost in the history, but he was great than others who made their name by doing wrong things. Then Ruskin talks about his obstacles that came in between while completing the 500-km long canal. He did a lot of research for years and got it done through a special tribe which was famous for digging soil. He was so observed in his work that his wife left him and seldom had he gone to his home in Mussoorie. He spent life mostly in tents.

After this, he talks about a jungle princess. He says that the lady who lived all her life in a jungle in Herbertpur. The story ends abruptly.

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