A pleasure to read!. Review on Delhi is not far : The best of Ruskin Bond - Ruskin Bond

Ruskin bond is one of the finest writers alive. He doesn't write with that sauvity or complexity, but he has a magical simplicity in his writing that you lose yourself in his world. After reading almost all of his works I chanced upon this one at a bookshop and just had to buy it.

This ones a bit less mature than ''rain in the mountains'' but all the more enjoyable. This is a collection of essays, poems and stories, all of which describe his journey through life, the people he meets and the emotions he felt. This is one book which doesnt require the use of dictionary and is to be read in solitude, sharing his love for mountains and nature.

I wanted to read this one because of the writing style of bond, which is magnificient. He uses a very few words to describe any situation, a habit which can be seen in all his works. some of the stories can already be found in his 'night train at deoli' collection of stories, but can be read again and again. The most memorable is 'the girl from copenhagen' which describes the need of simple love and not any bonding to prove it.

The pain he felt from his fathers death is also reflected in his stories and essays, his anguish at the parents divorce, and his love for his place of residence, mussorie. But in both his short novels, time stops at shamli, and delhi is not far, the theme seems to come out from the same love, an affair he perhaps remembered. This same love could be seen in the story 'love is a sad song' which is not included in this collection.

This similarity somehow puzzled me, as it smells of a repeat, but still it stands with its own essence. The extracts from the novels however had me lost completely, as I hadn't read some of them and was at a complete loss to make anything out of it. Then there are 5 beautiful travel writings of his journeys, which are also imminent in the completeness of the work.

I won't call this work as the best of bond, but for anyone who has read bond, even once, would sure want to add this to their collection. If you just want some time out of lifes vagaries and troubles, immerse yourself in this book and forget for a few moments who you are.