Book Review - Delhi Is Not Far


Delhi Is Not Far - Ruskin Bond
4/5
Ruskin Bond is a content man. Atleast I think so. Sure he has bills to pay, sure he has people to worry for. But his writing says that he is content. He is not trying to prove his worth in this world where everyone is stretching themselves to come up with the bestseller. He knows his worth, it seems. And writing is only an extension of his life. 90% of his life is LIVED, not talked about.

This man lives at the foothill town of the Himalayas. This book is about how his character goes away to Delhi for some vague reason and starts to miss the hills and how he eventually winds his way back. His stories are always synonymous with his love affair with the mountains and its people. His writing comes out of a deeper well of affection and respect for the people he knows/meets and lives surrounded by. Not the shallow well of research and mere study.

You can get bored of Ruskin Bond, because after reading about ten of his stories, you see a pattern emerging. But if you share the similar love for humanity and nature that he does, you willl never get ‘bored’. After all ‘bored’ is a modern urban term. It doesn’t exist on the mountains, where the peaks stand consistent day to day, month to month, year to year and decade to centuries