Skip to main content

Book Review: Night of the Millennium by Ruskin Bond

Night of the Millennium by Ruskin Bond is a short story that is slightly spooky and has horror elements. As usual it is set in Mussoorie, in Nag Tibba, a sort of hill side. If you have read other popular stories of Ruskin Bond, you might be familiar with this Nag Tibba.


The story is staged against the night of 31 December 1999. Soon a new millennium will be celebrated by the world. The new century will not be like previous one, it will open various vistas for growth and development especially for skilled, hardworking, and intellectual persons.

Since it’s a New Year night that many do not sleep, Pasand, a young man, who is highly successful in his efforts, is taking a stroll past midnight. He is thinking about others performance in life by seeing their large houses while walking.

But success has made him arrogant. He takes others for granted. He is also lustful and tonight wants to sleep with any woman to exert his dominance. The road he is walking has an old cemetery beside it. There are tomb graves of many officers, Mem Sahibs, innocent children, and even of royal personalities. This cemetery reminds that nothing is permanent in life and no matter how prideful one is ultimately bites the dust.

Pasand's phone rings but its display is plain, showing nothing. From his list of servants, he heard that a poor widow woman in late thirties lives in a domed tomb in this cemetery. Rumours have that this lady is magnanimous to those who give her money, as she has to take care of her kids. Pasand is seeking her to satisfy his lust.

As the moon shines above the Deodar trees, she smiles at him. He goes in the cemetery. He tries to have her but things go awkward. Pasand hadn't time to realize that he was accosted by the ghost of that woman. He was bitten by that woman and her children on one of the tombs. Only his bones will be left for the howling jackals that come from the forests of the hills.

It’s a very small short story but Ruskin brilliantly built all the elements to place it perfectly. One reason is that he is so much familiar with his favourite backdrop: Himalayan landscapes. Also the message in the book is that pride always go to drain. Pasand was successful, but he was not humble, and his arrogance costs him his life. Cemetery, howling jackals, and rumours of a poor woman – perfectly mixes up the story plot. So, in a nutshell, the night of the millennium was not all about celebration and good luck.

Comments

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 ...

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...

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...