Ruskin Bond 2016

Ruskin Bond

Many Small Moments to Savour! 

"Book readers are special people, and they will always turn to books as the ultimate pleasure.” -  Ruskin Bond

Come May and the reading fraternity awaits the release of a new book of short stories by the Indian Bond – Ruskin Bond. Excerpts from “The charm of elephants and other wild tales” Stories about his lifelong companions - animals, insects, flowers and trees at Dehra, Mussourie and Landour.   

                                                      Harold, Our Hornbill

Here he delineates how birds herald the coming of rains after the scorching summer heat:  

Although Harold the Hornbill never seemed to drink any water, he loved the rain. We always knew when it was going to rain because Harold would start chuckling to himself about an hour before the first raindrops fell.

This used to irritate Aunt Ruby. She was always being caught in the rain. Harold would be chuckling when she left the house. And when she returned, drenched to the skin, he would be in fits of laughter.

As storm clouds would gather, and gusts of wind would shake the banana trees, Harold would get very excited, and his chuckle would change to an eerie whistle. “Wheee…..wheee,’ he would scream and with the first drops of rain, he would start roaring with pleasure. The wind would carry the rain into the veranda, and Harold would spread his wings and dance, tumbling about like a circus clown.

                                                            The Python

Maybe vanity isn’t just a supercilious human trait after all:

Next we saw the python curled up on the dressing table, gazing at his reflection in the mirror. I went for Grandfather, but by the time we returned, the python had moved elsewhere. A little later he was seen in the garden. Then he was back on the dressing table, admiring himself in the mirror. Evidently, he had become enamoured of his own reflection. Grandfather observed that perhaps the attention he was receiving from everyone had made him a little conceited.

“He’s trying to look better for Aunt Mabel,” I said, a remark that I instantly regretted, because Grandmother heard it, and she brought the flat of her hand down on my head.  “Well, now we know his weakness,” said Grandfather. “Are you trying to be funny, too?” demanded Grandmother, looking her most threatening. “I only meant he was becoming very vain,’ said Grandfather hastily. “It should be easier to catch him now.”

He set about preparing a large cage with a mirror on one end. One morning, I saw the python curled up in the cage. He had eaten all the food, and was relaxing in front of the mirror with something resembling a smile on his face - if you can imagine a python smiling. I lowered the trapdoor gently, but the python took no notice; he was in raptures over his handsome reflection. We left the cage in the jungle, with the trapdoor open.

“He made no attempt to get out,” said Grandfather later. “And I didn’t have the heart to take the mirror away. It’s the first time I have seen a snake fall in love.”

                                                The charm of elephants

Everyone likes elephants. Go where you will, you won’t hear a harsh word against these outsize animals, who combine power with gentleness, a childish sulkiness with good humour and great girth with a ballet dancer’s poise:

Elephants are noted for their nimbleness, and in parts of Assam, there is a belief that wild elephants sometimes assemble together to dance. A mahout once told me that he had come upon a large forest clearing, the floor beaten smooth and hard.  “It was an elephant nautch-khana,” he said.  A ballroom! I am quite happy to go along with the quaint belief that elephants meet by moonlight in their forest ballrooms to dance their reels and quadrilles. The music of their trunks is no better or worse than the music of bagpipes.

                                                                      The world of music

Bond hears symphonic classical melodies in the natural sounds of the jungle:

At the height of the monsoon, the banyan tree was like an orchestra pit with the musicians constantly tuning up. Then, from the stream came the chanting of hundreds of frogs. There were tenors and baritones, sopranos and contraltos, and occasionally a bass deep enough to have pleased the great Chaliapin. They sang duets and quartets from La Boheme and other Italian operas, drowning out other jungle sounds except for the occasional cry of a jackal doing his best to join in. 

“We might as well sing,” said Uncle Ken, and began singing the ‘Indian love call’ in his best Nelson Eddy manner. I too tried adding my shrill piping to theirs, with a toy flute in my hands. But they thought poorly of our musical ability. Whenever I piped, the birds and the insects fell into a pained and puzzled silence.  Uncle Ken was answered by strident jackal calls, not one but several- with the result that all self-respecting denizens of the forest fled from the vicinity, and we saw no wildlife that night.

                                                            The friendship of flowers

"A flower doesn't have to rush about in order to make friends. It remains quietly where it has grown and sweetens the air with its fragrance. God gave this power to flowers and gentle people."

I like to take other people’s sick or discarded plants and cajole them back to health. This has given me a bit of a reputation as a plant doctor. Actually, all I do is give an ailing plant a quiet corner where it can rest and recuperate from whatever ails it- they have usually been ill-treated in some way.

I rescued a dying asparagus fern from the portals of the Savoy Hotel, and now, six months later, its strong feathery fronds have taken over most of my bedroom window, and I have no need of curtains. Nandu, the owner of Savoy, now wants his fern back.

The simple tales continue and we feel refreshed and reborn every time we read them.