Tuesday, November 17, 2020

BookMarks #74: Journey Down the Years

Title: Journey Down the Years 
Author: Ruskin Bond 
Genre: Non-fiction, Memoirs 
Published: 2017 

Summary 
A collection of 25 “tales” by the maestro Mr. Bond (as I like to read his name) 

BookMarks 
It is always a pleasure going back to the writings of Ruskin Bond. The stories are simplistic and yet fill with an unadulterated joy. While the book’s title suggests that it is Mr. Bond’s autobiography and thats how the initial stories start off but then the book takes its own course into nature. A constant theme of the stories is the lament of nature losing its battle against human development but everywhere hope springs up. This is a tale of the adventurous wind which the writer first encountered in his childhood and which has taken him places. 

Mr. Bond (I like saying the name) says that it is easier to write without being constrained by a subject. And that is how the book flows flitting from one subject to another - a collection of tales traversed by that adventurous wind. Some on his own life, some his observations. Sometimes the writer is the hero of his tale and sometimes he is just a commentator providing us the "aankhon dekha haal". 

Its the same adventurous wind which brings in that restlessness in the humans so that they are not satisfied with what they have. Rural folk want the hustle bustle of the city life and the urban folks crave  the tranquil of the hills. People come to see the Taj while a young fellow who has lived there ignores the monument and sees the people. 

Yes, the Taj Mahal. As the author writes - it doesn’t change. Therein lies its beauty. For the effect on the traveller is the same today as it was three hundred years ago when the Frenchman, Bernier, wrote: ‘Nothing offends the eye….… No part can be found that is not skillfully wrought, or that has not its peculiar beauty.’ Oh, and I haven't seen it yet! 

The book is filled with tales from the nature - the peacocks of Mathura, the crows who follow humans everywhere, the bat with a misguided radar, a spring making its way into a river. The garden lizard’s story has all the thrills of an Animal Planet documentary with a narration at par with Attenborough. 

A couple of interesting lines about boredom and loneliness that I cherish - ‘Lonely! Why should I feel lonely? Is not our planet in the Milky Way?’ and 'Find a book to read & you will never be bored!' Both lines hold a profound meaning in these weird times. And the book has given me two tasks – Read Kipling’s Kim and re-read Jerome K Jerome’s “Three Men in a Boat”. 

Finally, there was a passage quoted from Farmer's Glory by AG Street which is quite relevant in the covid-19 times 
It is perhaps nothing to boast about, but there is little doubt that the present prosperity of British farming is mainly due to one man, who is now dead. His name was Adolf Hitler. There is no disputing that it was the fear of famine during the early 1940s which taught the British nation that despite all man’s cleverness and inventions, when real danger comes an island people must turn for succour to the only permanent asset they possess, the land of their own country. It has never, and will never, let them down; always provided they realize and obey this eternal truth—that to make the land serve man, man must first be content to serve the land. 
A better analogy of self-sufficiency (or becoming aatm-nirbhar) can’t be provided. 

Overall, a truly wonderful read! 

Previously on BookMarks: My India

Other works of Ruskin Bond on BookMarks 
#59 - The Perfect Murder – An anthology compiled by Mr. Bond.  
#53 - A Gathering of Friends - A collection of short stories.

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