-
Rhododendrons In The Mist My Favourite Tales of th
n his new collection of stories, many of which have never been published before, bestselling writer Ruskin Bond collects together his finest tales of the Himalaya, the mountains he has called home for over fifty years. One half of the book is devoted to unsettling, sometimes terrifying stories of murder, mystery, and the supernatural. Kicking off with the sinister ‘Rhododendrons in the Mist’, a brand-new story, this section assembles chilling stories like ‘A Face in the Dark’, ‘Eyes of the Cat’, ‘Panther’s Moon’, and ‘The Skull’. The second section comprises tales that concern themselves with the everyday drama of life in the Himalaya. Starting with the autobiographical ‘Breakfast at Barog’, which has never before appeared in print, this section includes timeless stories like ‘The Blue Umbrella’, ‘The Cherry Tree’, and ‘A Long Walk for Bina’. The book concludes with an enthralling new story, ‘The Garden of Dreams’. Singular and unforgettable, Ruskin Bond’s new collection shows us once again why he is the country’s most addictive writer.
-
Captain Young’s Ghost Ghostly Tales From The India
Vintage storyteller Ruskin Bond has created some unforgettable characters in his novels and stories, but perhaps the most memorable and unusual among them are the ghosts and spirits he has encountered. These ghosts are not always horrific; they are mysterious and often benevolent, or lonely creatures looking for company among humans. Collected in these pages are new stories written specifically for this volume—including Captain Young’s Ghost—and classics such as A Face in the Dark and The Haunted Bicycle. Here you will find the spirit of a captain from the British army who returns to the town he founded and rues the lack of Irish whisky; a little boy, long dead, who continues to guide passers-by on treacherous mountain routes; a heartbroken young girl of long ago who seduces young men with her song, and another who longs for a family and some friends. Set in the hills and foothills of North India—the perfect haunt for ghosts and spirits—this collection by the master storyteller will leave you spellbound.
-
A Gallery of Rascals
Ruskin Bond is the most addictive and entertaining writer in modern Indian literature. The author of over a hundred novels and short-story collections, his fiction is especially celebrated for the unforgettable misfits, Dreamers, small-time con artists, rapscallions, thieves and drifters who populate it. For the first time ever, a gallery of rascals brings together the most memorable rogues to feature in Ruskin Bond’s fiction. A few brand new stories—‘a man called brain’, ‘Sher Singh and the hot-water bottle’, ‘crossing the road’— headline this collection and rub shoulders with much-loved tales like ‘the thief story’, ‘The boy who broke the Bank’, ‘tigers for dinner’ and ‘a case for Inspector Lal’. thrilling and effortlessly readable, the thirty stories in this book show exactly why Ruskin Bond’s fiction is irresistible.
-
Night of the Millennium
Nowadays, we are often assured by the cool touch of technology when confronted with fear. Help is just a call away. But the creatures of the dark await in the shadows, laughing at our foolishness, for their powers transcend those of man’s modern gadgets. Could Pasand, a man of the millennium, ever think that his cell phone would be of no help as he is caught in the clutches of the family in the graveyard? Could Harley Warren, a researcher of forbidden subjects, ever imagine that the telephone he was using to keep in touch with his friend as he explored the dark depths of a sepulchre would be useless in the face of danger? These and other elements of the night find place in this book compiled by India’s favourite author, Ruskin Bond. Comprising stories by Rudyard Kipling, H.H. Munro, Bram Stoker and others, Night of the Millennium will chill you to the bone!
-
An Underground Walk
Terror. The word conjures up images of ghosts, monsters, half-creatures and phantoms. But terror doesn’t always stem from the paranormal. It can turn up in unexpected ways in everyday life, clutching at our heart with icy fingers! Feel the blind panic of Hansard, a young student of Forestry, when he finds himself in the grip of a maneating tiger; the desperation of a Navy officer and his comrades in a slowly flooding chamber of a sinking submarine; or the terror of two children stuck at the bottom of a cave, several miles under the earth, and unable to find a way out. Written by masters of the genre and compiled by Ruskin Bond, here are gems from Sylvia Green, R.L. Stevenson, C.A. Kincaid and Aubrey Wade, among others. An Underground Walk is a collection of stories sure to keep you at the edge of your seat.
-
Calypso Christmas
Meet the enchanting and chaat-loving singer Gracie, for whom the narrator develops a one-sided affection; the delinquent youth, Sunil, with whom he forges an unlikely friendship; little Bisnu, who faces-off a man-eater that has claimed many in the village; and the lively West Indian, George. The novella is a favourite of Ruskin Bond, and this collection encompasses both humour and pathos. It also includes an excerpt from The Room on the Roof, for which Bond had won the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize. From the small towns of Mussourie and Dehradun to the teeming cities of Delhi and London, Calypso Christmas takes you to people and places you will remember long after the book is read.
-
Coming Round The Mountain-In The Year Of Independe
'It was 1947, and life was about to change quite dramatically for most of us' Thirteen-year-old Ruskin is back at school, doing what he loves-reading, goal-keeping, spending time with his friends and eating lots of jalebis. But things seem to be rapidly changing all around him. Whispers of a partition haunt the corridors of his school. Does the formation of a new, independent India mean saying goodbye to old friends-and, with it, the shenanigans they got up to? On the heels of Looking for the Rainbow and Till the Clouds Roll By, Coming Round the Mountain is yet another look at the past, in particular one memorable year, 1947, during which a lot happened to Ruskin and those around him. It is a fitting finale to a journey down memory lane, one about accepting change and finding hope in the unknown days to come.
-
Tiger in the Tunnel
For decades now, Ruskin Bond has been charming us with his captivating stories about life in the hills. For this collection, India’s favourite storyteller has rummaged through his archives and fished out a compilation of some of the pithiest short stories written on the Indian wildlife. From tigers, elephants, mongooses and leopards to jackals, panthers, snakes and cats—Bond covers them all, humble and mighty, in this collection. Bringing together the finest writing by authors such as Rudyard Kipling, C.A. Kincaid, John Eyton, Hugh Allen, among others, this collection will enchant the Bond aficionado and initiate alike.
-
The Phantom Coach
‘As a matter of fact,’ he went on to say, ‘I believe in vampires myself.’ ‘You do?’ I felt the hair on the back of my neck commence to irritate. It is one thing to write about a horror, but quite another to begin to see it assume definite shape. ‘Yes,’ said Father R—. ‘I am forced to believe in vampires for the very good but terrible reason that I have met one!’ Tales of vampires, ghouls, werewolves and spirits rub shoulders with shikar stories and thrillers from all over the world in this eclectic collection. Selected by Ruskin Bond, these are stories by Bram Stoker, Sydney Horler, Alice Perrin, Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, Saki and Amelia Edwards and many others. Read about a precarious journey in a haunted coach; a seemingly supernatural man-eater; Sherlock Holmes investigating a locked room mystery; and an Englishman who spends a night of horror in a long-deserted village before traveling on to Transylvania as the guest of Count Dracula.
-
In Grandfathers Garden
Months later, the book appeared, printed privately of course. And there was my photograph, and a photograph of the dead leopard after it had been hunted down. But the local printer had got the captions mixed up. The dead animal’s picture earned the line: ‘Well-known author Ruskin Bond.’ My picture carried the legend: ‘Dreaded man-eater, shot after it had killed its 26th victim.’ Playful snakes, monkeys, crocodiles and old favourites like the Grandfather, Aunt Mabel, Uncle Ken, Ms Bun, Ranji, Foster and Ruskin Bond himself, come together in this delightful and irresistible collection. From a belt that gets hooked on to another person’s luggage, and snakes admiring themselves before a dressing table, to a priest reading out the service for burial at sea during a funeral inside a church—Bond is at his effortless best in this anthology. Peppered with his signature wry humour and generous dose of wit, In Grandfather’s Garden will make you see the funny side of things in life, bringing laughter to even those who seldom smile.
-
The House Of Strange Stories
‘The morgue had no electricity, just a kerosene lamp. I had not been sitting there for long when the lamp went out and something moved very softly and quietly past me. Something cold and icy touched one of my hands and felt its way up towards my neck and throat. It was behind me, then it was before me. Then it was over me. I was in the arms of the corpse!’ With the House of Strange Stories, celebrated writer Ruskin Bond brings forth a collection of some of the most blood-curdling tales ever written. Featuring Stacy Marie Belloc Lowndes’ ‘The Lodger’, Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Red-Headed League’, Wilkie Collins’ ‘The Duel’, Bram Stoker’s ‘The Sqaw’, Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ and several of Bond’s own, these tales of macabre, suspense, vampires and haunted houses will leave even horror fans terrified.
-
Devdaranchya Chayetla Mrutyu (देवदारांच्या छायेतला
रस्किन बाँड यांच्या नवीन कथांच्या या विलक्षण संग्रहात गतकाळातल्या मसुरीत घडलेल्या रोमांचक गोष्टी आहेत. त्यात ‘खून झालेला पाद्री’, ‘विवाहबाह्य संबंध ठेवणारं जोडपं’, ‘जन्मतः दुष्ट असलेला मुलगा’, ‘बॉक्स बेडमधलं प्रेत’, ‘टपालातून आलेल्या विषाचं गूढ’, ‘कोन्यॅकमधून केलेला विषप्रयोग’, ‘रहस्यमय काळा कुत्रा’ आणि ‘दर्यागंजचा खुनी लेखक’ अशा चटकदार कथा ते सादर करतात|
-
Atmarangin Ruskin Bond (आत्मरंगी रस्किन बॉन्ड)
रस्किन बाँड... गेली साठ वर्षं सर्व वयोगटांतल्या, शहरांतल्या, लहान गावांतल्या वाचकांना ते रिझवत आहेत, त्यांच्यासाठी ते जणू जवळचे सोबतीच बनले आहेत. त्यांच्या कथांनी, पुस्तकांनी आपलं मनोरंजन झालं, कधी आपल्याला भुरळ घातली, तर कधी घाबरवलंही. त्यांच्या लिखाणानं वाचकांची सौंदर्यदृष्टी विकसित झाली आणि रोजच्या आयुष्यातलं, निसर्गातलं सौंदर्य टिपण्याची वाचकांची अभिरुची खुलली. निराश वाचकांच्या चेहर्यांवर त्यांनी हास्य फुलवलं आणि संकटांच्या अंधारात त्यांनी वाचकांना सावरलं. आत्मरंगी (मूळ पुस्तक - लोन फॉक्स डान्सिंग) हे रस्किन बाँड यांचं प्रांजळ आत्मकथन! या कथनात त्यांच्या कथांची, लेखनाची बीजं गवसतात.
-
Till the Clouds Roll By
A couple of years after his father's death, ten-year-old Ruskin travels to Dehradun to spend his holidays with his new family. As he reacquaints himself with his mother, now remarried and with a busy social life, his stepfather and new siblings, a pensive Ruskin longs for his father's company, his stamp collection and the old gramophone. Trying to escape this unfamiliar place, he immerses himself in books and explores the forest glades, canals and bazaars of the little town, forming some unlikely friendships on the way. After the much-loved Looking for the Rainbow, the master storyteller lends another backward glance at his boyhood years-a vacation that took place over seventy winters ago-remembering his days with rare humour, remarkable charm and twinges of heartache.
-
The Chakrata Cat
As the light came on, I saw the cat standing at the foot of the bed, tail erect and hair on end. It was very angry. And then…its appearance changed and its head was that of a human—a woman, black-browed with flaring nostrils and large crooked ears, her lips full and drenched with blood—my blood!This is a collection of some of Ruskin Bond’s most pithy short stories ranging from eerie suspense to touching empathy. There’s a bloodthirsty cat in a colonial rest house; an uncle who carries a vial of deadly arsenic with him; a mysterious woman whose seven husbands have disappeared one after another; and the touching tales of animals in the wilderness and their lonely struggle for survival against humans.Captivating and addictive, The Chakrata Cat will keep you enthralled till the end.
-
JOURNEY DOWN THE YEARS
s a novelist and storyteller, I have always drawn upon my memories of places that I have known and lived in over the years. More than most writers, perhaps, I find myself drawing inspiration from the past—my childhood, adolescence, youth, early manhood... The stories and the poems float in through my window, float in from the magic mountains, and the words appear on the page