Skip to main content

Book Review: Grandpa Fights an Ostrich by Ruskin Bond

Grandpa Fights an Ostrich by Ruskin Bond is a short story about his grandfather’s fight with an Ostrich in East Africa. Before joining the Indian Railways, he had worked for East African Railway. It was a long ago. Ruskin’s grandfather was living in a small town. However, his work was related to laying railway tracks and it was twelve miles away from the town. He would go and come back every day on a horseback.


One day his horse meets with a slight accident. Thus, he decides to continue his journey on foot. He knows the short route through mountains which can save him about six miles. Well, this short cut passes through an ostrich farm or camp. It is the breeding season. He is fairly familiar with the ways of ostriches; especially male birds are over-the-top aggressive and are always ready to attack. But he has a dog with him who can scare away any bird that may try to attack him. Soon, the dog starts chasing a hare. Grandpa shouts out to call back the dog. Meanwhile one male ostrich being disturbed by the dog’s barking and man’s shout, comes running to him. Grandpa – alone and without any weapon – feels frightened and begins running towards the fence. He finds a thicket of thorn bushes and then begins running around it. He is tired of running and is about to fall of exhaustion. He stops and when the ostrich charges at him in full speed, he jumps to one side, but instead of landing safe on the ground he finds himself clinging to its flap of the wing.

The ostrich retreats frighteningly. It loses its attacking stance and goes round and round the bush to throw him away from its body. Grandpa dares not leaving it, but due to exhaustion he loses the grip and falls on the ground. Soon, the ostrich comes upon him with one leg ready to press him. But soon his dog comes running and scares the ostrich. Finally, he is saved by the dog.

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

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

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

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