Kevein Books and Reviews

Gracie is a lengthy story covered in the book Secrets by Ruskin Bond. Gracie is a story of a woman in the heat of World War Two. She was a pretty lady of seventeen or eighteen with English, Portuguese, Burmese and Indian descent. In the winter of 1945, the streets and roads of Dehradun became all of sudden full with soldiers, mainly allied troops. Dehradun was not a center of military activities, but it was made into a recreational center for the allied troops engaged in fighting the war at different frontiers. American soldiers were rich, thus they would distribute toffees to the children in the street. While British soldiers always short on ration weren’t that avuncular. Because of the rush of the soldiers, there was sudden rise in the clubs, restaurants, bars and cinema halls. The sleepy town of Dehra became a vivid commercial hub. One nice soldier named Corporal Allen gifted three crime thriller books of Agatha Christie to young Ruskin, aged ten. On the other hand, Gr...

Ghost Trouble by Ruskin Bond is a humorous tale of a Pret (typical Indian ghost) who has strong penchant for making people’s lives difficult. The narrator is a small boy who lives with his grandparents. In the compound, beside a road, is a peepal tree on which resides the Pret. He is living there happy. The Pret often disturbs the Tonga riders, passers-by, and throw stones or fruit seeds at the bicyclists to misbalance them. They all look up at the tree to find only a small boy hidden in the branches; they often threaten him with terrible consequences. However, the boy knows that the prankster is none other than the Pret, as he is invisible to human beings so he is always at advantage. In most of his stories and novels, Ruskin Bond subtly appeals for preserving nature and often cites the consequences when the trees in the city or nearby jungle areas are being cut down for commercialization and personal motifs. On trees like peepal not only birds dwell but sprits too. Clearly ...

Well, before putting this story into the category of detective story, the author Ruskin Bond very slyly has built the background for it by introducing the topic of born killers. He professes as just there are born singers, actors, and sports persons; similarly there are some people who are smooth at killing. William Jones was such a magnificent killer as he always killed his victims quite smoothly. Not violently like criminals or dons. He was a male nurse in the hospital of Agra; and he always stood by terminal cases. As no one expects terminal patients to recover like hopeful cases, thus their death could never be highlighted. When Jones fell in love with Mrs. Browning - the wife of a stationmaster, their letter exchanging activity became a notable thing for the people working in the postal department. By the way Jones was based in Agra and Mrs. Browning in Meerut. Mrs. Browning’s husband fell sick and died silently. After that she shifted to Agra and took a home beside Mr. ...

The narrator doesn’t have a name but for sure it is Rusty, since this story is a part of the book ‘Rusty Comes Home’. A year ago Rusty had bought a bicycle to commute to Shahganj from the village for collecting mail and newspaper and to drink cups of tea. The road to Shahganj passes through a lonely jungle, hardly to be seen a soul after dusk. One evening when Rusty is returning to the village in which he lives he finds a boy standing alone in the forest. When asked the reason for being at this scary place in the darkness, he said he is waiting for his elder sister. The face and features of the boy were not visible as it was dark. The boy sits on the crossbar and after some time when the lantern light falls on the figure, Rusty takes that girl as his sister. She sets herself on the carrier seat even before Rusty could ask her any details. While paddling the bicycle Rusty feels that the weight on the cycle is increasing and they were not responding to his questions properly. Rusty ...

As Time Goes By is a short story featured in the novella, Rusty Comes Home. The narrator is Rusty in his old days, way ahead than the frivolities of the youth he spent with his best friends in Dehradun and Mussoorie. He sees that Prem’s boys have grown up to the verge of manhood. This sight makes him to look back at his own teenage life that he spent in Dehradun; he nostalgically remembers his two best friends: Somi and Ranbir. They were adventurous and how Rusty used to enjoy their company until they all parted away in different directions in search of lucrative careers and wealth. Rusty recounts a beautiful account of finding a pool in the hills on a rainy day. It was formed by the downstream flowing streams and beneath it was a ravine. He was impatient to tell the others about the pool. So, they all named it as Rusty’s Pool. In this pool they would take buffalo rides and do wrestling and play in the muddy waters. For all it was a rendezvous point, often they included Kishe...