3.1. the ROOM ON THE ROOF: Novel of adolescence.

The novel The Room on the Roof is a significant work as it was

written by an adolescent about the life of adolescents in India. No

wonder it won the prestigious award for fiction. It has all the

ingredients of a good novel with a well-crafted plot with the characters

drawn from real life. It is authentic and honest to the core. Though a

maiden attempt, it has been edited and worked on by experienced

editor and his mentor Diana Athill, who wrote in her letter to the

author, dated 23rd March 1964,

“The Room on the Roof remains just what it always was, a

remarkably true piece of writing. You are a writer who works best from

very close to your own experience—. I sometimes feel envious of people

with the other kind of mind, full of invention. But I still like best the

kind of writing which goes inwards rather than outwards.”1

(reproduced in Scenes from Writer's Life).

The author, a young boy of 17, went to England in search of a

job. Born and brought up in India, he felt a deep sense of longing for

the country of his birth. He realized that he belonged to India and he

loved it. His sense of alienation and homesickness made him write the

novel. The characters are his childhood friends with whom he had

shared the little joy and sorrow of life in India.

The novel is about his life in India as an adolescent. The style is

comparable to an impressionistic painting. The theme is close to his

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heart and true to his life experiences. Set in the post independent

Dehra Dun it recreates the romance of the period seen through the

impressionistic eyes of young boy Rusty. It is a celebration of life. The

age of the author and Rusty the adolescent being same, with its heady

blend of adventure and innocence the novel evokes magical charm. It

is an age full of hope and dreams. Death, change and trauma fail to

stop the fountain of life and the characters continue their journey

unabated.

The quintessence of the novel The Room on the Roof is life and

its different shapes. Rusty the Anglo-Indian boy who inherits the twin

culture is being brought up by his Anglo-Indian guardian. He finds

the discipline of his household and neighborhood constricting. He

feels suffocated and leaves the safety of his home to explore the

outside world. His chance encounter with the local boys opens a new

window to the outside world. Being a lonely child he is hungry for

companionship. As rebellious teenager he ventures out and when his

guardian Mr. Harrison tries to stop him by punishing, he runs away.

Like any other teenager of his age he walks out of the home simply to

be away from the authority of the elders.

The chai shop in the bazaar provides the right type of setting for

this newly found freedom. His friends introduce him to the tangy

golgappas and he takes an instant liking for them.

The cultural shock and the thrill of rustic holi celebrations are

vividly described. It also depicts the conflict between the

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sophisticated Anglo-Indian sensibility of his guardian getting a rude

shock and the young boy with a fresh mind, finding it as a challenge

that is pleasant and enjoyable. The boy is absolutely overwhelmed.

The outside world is like a wonderland for the boy. He joins his friends

to take bath in the public tap. The joy and the exuberance, the

warmth and the freedom brings with it the bonds of friendship with

his street smart friends Romi and Ranbir. The description of the

Dehra bazaar is interesting.

Rusty encounters everything that is new to him. He is learning

his daily lessons of life from Dehra. His friends Somi and Ranbir

introduce him to a new and lively ways of living. They represent a new

zest for life. The warmth of friendship and the endearing hospitality

makes Rusty take an instant liking for Somi. As a friend in need, Somi

finds a job of tutor for Kapoor’s son Kishen. Rusty, during his stay in

their house develops a liking for Mrs. Kapoor. As true to his age, he

derives tremendous joy in being close to the lady during the picnic. He

expresses his love for her and the lady consents. Mrs. Kapoor, a young
lady married to alcoholic husband basks in the adoration of a

teenaged boy. It satisfies her hunger for recognition and love.

The author, himself an adolescent, depicts the feelings in the

most natural manner. But as life is not just a fantasy, Rusty is forced

soon enough to realize the reality. Mrs. Kapoor dies in a car accident.

Faced with the dark reality of life, the young adolescent is dumb

founded. “Rusty was overcome by a feeling of impotence and futility

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and of unimportance of life. Every moment, he told himself, some one

is born and someone dies, you can count them one, two three, a birth

and a death for every moment. What is this one life in the whole

pattern of life? What is this one life, but a passing of time? And if I

were to die now suddenly and without cause what would happen?

Would it matter? We live without knowing why, and to what

purpose.”2

The separation which is painful for the sensitive adolescent

mind continues when his close friends Ranbir and Suri leave and

Somi is about to go to Amritsar. Once again Rusty is alone. Finally he

decides to leave Dehra and India, may be in an attempt to go as far

away as possible from the painful memory of Meena’s death. Kishen

leaves for Haridwar.

At Haridwar, Rusty finds himself face to face with another set of

reality of life, as he goes there to take leave of Kishen before leaving for

England. He finds Meena’s husband happily married and living with

his second wife and his friend turned into a tramp. Kishen finds it

difficult to reconcile to his father’s second marriage and disowns him

by running away from home. He turns himself into a notorious thief.

This concept of self destruction or hurting oneself is the most common

phenomena during the adolescent period. The young mind is neither a

child’s mind which forgets easily, nor an adult’s mind which can

forgive. So caught in between is the stage of adolescence. Here the

child can understand and feel. But he is not adult enough to

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understand and forgive. That is the reason why the rebellion takes

place. It is an expression of disbelief, disenchantment of the adult

world, which is shocking for the adolescent. At this stage an

adolescent without the proper guidance of the grown up, gets totally

confused and reacts in a violent way.

Here Kishen could not forgive his father who married again. The

sudden loss of his mother is shocking enough for him. His father’s

need for a companion leading to the marriage is another blow. To the

sensitive mind of adolescent, it is a betrayal and a loss of his father’s

affection. Kishen has only one way of expressing it. It is by inducing

pain to himself, thereby punishing his father. By being a thief or a

pickpocket he is disobeying his father and causing pain by doing

something which he does not want him to do.

Every protagonist in Ruskin Bond’s fiction undergoes this stage.

Rusty also rebels and runs away from home. The day he runs away

from home he has no other intention but to cause anxiety to his

guardian and his choice of staying away from home is an

instantaneous decision and not a pre-planned one. In the similar

manner when Rusty meets Kishen, he finds him in a state of shock.

Initially Kishen tries to stay away. But Rusty’s warmth of friendship

breaks the ice and they come together.

Once again it is the peer group, which plays an important role

in an adolescent’s life. Kishen and Rusty decide to return to Dehra as

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“They were both refugees- refugees for the world... they were each

other’s shelter, each other’s refuge, each other’s help. Kishen was a

jungli, divorced from rest of mankind and Rusty was the only one who

understood him - because Rusty too was divorced from mankind. And

theirs was a tie that would hold, because they were the only people

who knew each other and loved each other.”3

The process of coming together starts with Rusty and Kishen’s

return to Dehra. There is the hope of re-union, suggested in a letter

from Somi.

“I shall be coming back to Dehra in the spring in time to watch

you play holi with Ranbir. Wait a little; be patient and the bad days

will pass. We do not know why we live. It is no use trying to know. But

we have to live. Rusty, because we really want to and as long as we

want to, we have got to find something to live for and even die for it.”4

Ruskin Bond speaks of the average adolescent here. It is how a

young mind perceives the happenings around and responds. The

adolescents are vibrant, full of life and want to live and die for

something or somebody. Their love or hate is so passionate and

intense that they are prepared to live or die for it. They live in the

moment and act or react for that moment of their life.

However the spring of hope is always present in an adolescent’s

life.

“One day you will be great Rusty. A writer or an actor or a

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prime-minister or something., may be a poet! Why not a poet Rusty?”

Rusty smiled, he knew he was smiling because he was smiling

at himself.

“Yes” he said “why not a poet?” so they began to walk. Ahead of

them lay forest and silence... and what was left of time.”5

The Room on the Roof has the elements of allegory of life. It

depicts the cycle of hope and despair, darker and brighter aspects of

life. It has a pattern; the friends come together in a vibrant and

colorful festival of Holi. They separate and suffer. Finally there is again

a hope of re-union in which the colorful festival of Holi is mentioned

as a meeting place.

Secondly the novel is set in Dehra Dun. But for the last three

chapters, the entire novel is about life in Dehra. Hence it pays a

specific homage to Dehra, a place dear to the author’s heart.

So far as the structure is concerned The Room on The Roof is a

well-planned novel, dealing with the theme of adolescence. It can be

divided into four acts as the drama unfolds in four dimensions of

adolescent’s behaviour.

1) Rebellion: The first seven chapters give a vibrant picture of

Dehra bazaar that is full of life and color. It is wild, dusty and

full of people and sweetmeat. On the other hand there is life in

Harrison household, disciplined, serious and dull. The bazaar is

a prohibited area for the Harrison household. Obviously the

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 young adolescent finds the bazaar more attractive for the very
reason that it is prohibited. This restriction and desire to break
it, adds luster to the bazaar. When pushed to edge the teenager
rebels violently.

“Mad with the pain in his own face, Rusty hit the man

again and again, wildly and awkwardly but with the giddy thrill
of knowing, he could do it: he was a child no longer, he was

nearly seventeen. He was a man.”6 He runs away in a state of

shock and confusion, in a state of total disarray. He sits on the

steps of the chaat shop, in the middle of the night. Rusty’s

predicament is described in the following passage.

“Rusty had not fully realized the hazards of the situation.

He was still mad with anger and rebellion, and though the blood

on his cheek had dried, his face was still smarting. He could not

think clearly; the present was confusing and unreal and he

could not see beyond it”.

2) Infatuation: In the next seven chapters there is a transition from

the dull and drab Harrison household to the gaiety of the

bazaar. Rusty moves into the household of Kapoors. The movez

ment is not only physical but also psychological. He moves from

the innocent childhood to the romantic adolescence. The climax

is set very appropriately in a forest. Ruskin Bond believes in the

charm or spell that the nature casts on the minds of humans.

Hence almost all his romantic endeavors take
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 place in the open. Meena introduces the child to the adult

world. The infatuation or the crush over Meena may be termed

as calf-love. It is romantic and fascinating for Rusty.

3) Identity Crisis : Meena’s sudden death comes as a rude shock to

the boy. Now he is faced with another reality of life-death, soon

after he discovers the treasure of life - love. It becomes difficult

for the young mind to accept this. It pushes him into gloomy

introspective period. In the sequence of five chapters Rusty is

engrossed in his own thoughts and spends his time confined to

his ‘room on the roof.

The allegory of life can also be related to the title. Rusty

spends most of his time contemplating about death, sitting in

his room on the roof. Above the reality of life is death. People

live in their houses close to the earth - they move, love and

fight. But in Rusty’s room above, there is his encounter with the

higher realities - death, suffering and above all his loneliness.

His companions are visitors from the world of nature and not
from the world of humans. His window opens and offers a view

of nature, serene and blissful. It is this nature, which is

soothing and comforting. He comes back to this room in the

end. It is always there for him. It is symbolic.

4) Friendship : The last four chapters show Rusty meeting another

reality of life. He goes in search of his friend whom he finds

running away from the family. Initially he tries to

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 avoid Rusty. But Rusty wins his faith and helps him to cope

with the trauma. Their friendship and love act as an elixir of life

for Kishen. They decide to go back to Dehra, the place that they

deeply loved. It is a symbol of their faith in life. They ‘go back to

it’ as Bond puts it.

“They had to go back: to bathe at the water tank and

listen to the morning gossip, to sit under the fruit trees and eat

in the chaat shop and perhaps make a garden on the roof; to eat

and sleep; to work; to live; to die.”7

The Room on the Roof is an intensely personal novel. It is a

product of a sense of alienation of the author who was in a sort of

exile, away from his favorite Dehra and India. As a 17-year-old

teenager he was in search of his identity. Faced with the duality of

being bom as a child of English parents in India and brought up in

the lap of the Himalayas he faced a dilemma. When he went to

England at this stage, he did not feel at home. He felt home sick. He

realized that he had his roots in India. Going home to England

aggravated the post-colonial trauma of displacement, loss of family

and friends and insecurity. Bom and brought up in India like an

average Indian child, he had very little in common with the

Englishman.

While working on the novel The Room on the Roof he explored

his own consciousness, trying to find an answer to his identity crisis.

It helped him to recognize and understand his needs and identify

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his roots. He found himself an Indian and returned to India, to the

foothills of the Himalayas, a place he really belonged to.

First and foremost The Room on the Roof is an adolescent novel.

This area of writing for adolescents was not yet recognized when it was

first published in 1956. The first edition was described as an adult

novel written by a teenager. The 1993 Penguin edition calls it “a novel

of adolescence”. Being an adolescent who is no more a child and not

yet not an adult, the individual faces a crisis in his personality. As

Psychologist, Reed Artha J S puts it “the young adults experience

isolation, socialization, confusion and rebellion”.7.

It is a crucial period in the life of an individual. The adolescents

make important decisions and form their own ideas about the future

which affects their life as adults in the later stage.

“Adolescence is the transitional period from the dependency of

childhood to the independence and responsibility of being an adult. At

this point in their lives young people struggle with two fundamental

problems; to redefine their relationship with parents and other adults

and to establish themselves as individual.”8

The autobiographical element:

The novel, being intensely autobiographical, deals with the

adolescent themes with depth and authenticity. Rusty, the protagonist
is an Anglo-Indian like the author, orphaned at a young age (Ruskin
lost his father at an early age.) Rusty is brought up by his guardian

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Mr. Harrison (Ruskin Bond's stepfather’s name is Mr.Hari.) The small
community of Anglo-Indians continues to live a life of luxury and a
life-style entirely isolated from the rest of the Indian world.

Rusty is a lonely and shy boy. He has no friends. He is

forbidden to go beyond the clock tower, into the bazaar. He often finds
relief and escape from his confined world through dreams of “sudden

and perfect companionship, romance and heroics.” 9

Rusty like the author, finds solace in lonely walks in the

mountain roads. At a turning point he is offered a ride on the bicycle

by a Sikh boy Somi, who is also a teenager. Initially he is casual and

shy. The disarmingly simple and rustic Somi attracts him.

The journey motif in the form of an adolescent’s search for

identity can also be related here to the act of Rusty who defies his
guardian’s instructions and moves to the world of the bazaar. The
journey begins from this point in the novel. The archetypal epic hero
who sets on a journey typifies the individual, as per the psychologists
like Jung, “is endeavoring to discover and assert his personality.” 10

“Rusty moved along with the crowd fascinated by the sight of

beggars lying on the roadside, naked and emaciated half-humans,
some skeletons, some covered with sores; old men dying, children

dying, mothers with suckling babies living and dying.”11

It may be noted here that Rusty returns to his guardian’s home

twice, after the initial wandering away. On his first straying away he

gets a scolding and punishment by caning.

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 The second transgression takes place when he takes part in the
Holi-festival. A festival of colors symbolizing spring and regeneration.
He is instantly attracted to the rhythm of the beating drums and the
wild abandon “Something wild and emotional, something that
belonged to his dream world.”12

Even after this he returns home. He gets beaten up. It is

interesting to note that the child in him goes back to the home for

shelter twice. He endures the physical torture. But when his guardian
taunts him of his being a ‘half-breed’ that had been hidden from him
so far amounting to an attack on his identity and the root of his own

existence, he reacts violently, beats his guardian and runs away, even
though ‘madness and violence and freedom were new to him.’ He is
under shock. Here the traumatized teenager is pushed to the edge
and as a result he rebels. It is this disillusionment and lack of love

and care that drives him out of his house. At the same time the new
found faith and the warmth of friendship and freedom gives him the
strength to cross the threshold to empower himself, to take

responsibility for his life and actions.

It has an epic structure. The hero responds to the call of

adventure and is guided by the minstrels. They are symbols of the
whole psyche. Here Rusty’s friends guide him and accompany him in
his journey. They are at times his alter ego. When he walks out of his

so called home, he walks straight into the arms of his friends. He

becomes an English teacher to Kishen, son of Mr. And Mrs. Kapoor.

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His journey begins here. He becomes a member of the Kapoor family.
He gets a room of his own, symbolically a space for himself in the

world. His stay in Kapoor’s house opens a new road full of affection
and unconditional love. This is something new to him. He learns
about relationships which gives him a sense of security.

It is a psychological journey which is, according to psychologists

“the development of the individual’s ego consciousness - his
awareness of his own strengths and weaknesses - in a manner that
will equip him for the arduous tasks with which life confronts him.”13

The powerful bond of friendship works as a strengthening force

for Rusty. A shy and withdrawn teenager grows into a confident and
caring individual. It shapes his character and emboldens him into
taking responsibility for others. “By crossing social, cultural and
economic barriers Rusty acquires humaneness and relates to people

who are different from himself.”14

Ruskin Bond also addresses the sensitive topic of the emerging

sexuality of teenagers,(which was neglected during the 1950s) with
seriousness and candor. The Room on the Roof describes Rusty’s
passion and adoration for Mrs. Meena Kapoor. She is the mother he
has never known. Meena responds to his adoration first with motherly
affection. Later perhaps because of her frustrated and unhappy life
with her alcoholic husband she is flattered by Rusty’s attention and

responds. According to behavioral psychologists like Freud, Rusty's

love for Meena an older woman, is a normal aspect of adolescent

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sexuality.

The attraction towards the elderly woman is a reemergence of

Oedipal feelings in an adolescent. The teenager vies for affection with
his father. He behaves more like his father trying to protect the

mother. After the death of Meena Kapoor, Rusty offers to play the
father figure to Kishen, her son, in the next novel Vagrants in the

Valley.

It is also interesting to note how Bond analyses the adolescent’s

perspective of the adults. This aspect is undermined or overlooked in
most of the writings for adolescents. It may be due to the fact that the
author here is an adolescent himself, and treats it with sensitivity and

understanding. As Nat Hentoff puts it “Remarkably absent from the

fiction for the young is any real density of perception of the ways in
which they look at and react to the adults with whom they live.” 15

Bond exposes the merciless hypocritical adult who exploits and

abuses the adolescent children. No wonder his protagonists keep
running away most of the time from this selfish, cruel world of adults.
They find solace in the peaceful arms of Mother Nature. They feel

secure and happy in a forest.

The novel ends with Rusty’s decision to go back to his room on

the roof in Dehra. His creator, Ruskin Bond also finally discovers his
home, thereby resolving his personal crisis of identity. He realizes that
he is an Indian and settles down once for all in the lap of the

Himalayas.

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 As a first novel, The Room on the Roof is the beginning of the
author’s long journey into the world of adolescent fiction Blending
autobiography with fiction; he has developed a unique style of writing.
His protagonists are adolescents whom the author understands and
treats with sympathy and kindness.

References:

L Ruskin Bond Scenes from a Writer Life: A Memoir. Penguin Books India.
New Delhi, 1997.
2- Ruskin Bond. The Room on the Roof. Collected Fiction, pp. 632.
3- ibid pp. 659.
4- ibid pp. 644.
5- ibid pp. 660.
6- ibid pp. 572.
7- Reed Artha J.S. Reaching Adolescents: The Young Adult Book and the
school Holt Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1985.
8- Harris, Judith Rich and Robert Leihert. The Child:Development from Birth
to Adolescence. Prentice Hall. N Y,1985.
9- Ruskin Bond. The Room on the Roof. Collected Fiction, pp. 533.
10- Henderson Josef L. Ancient Myths and Modem Man (ed) Carl. G Jung
Daubleday N.Y. 1964.
n- Ruskin Bond. The Room on the Roof. Collected Fiction, pp 556.
12- Ibid
13- Henderson Josef L. Ancient Myths and Modem Man (ed) Carl. G. Jung
Daubleday N.Y. 1964.
14- Meena G. Khorana - The Search for Identity, Journey as Metaphor in the
Room on the Roof, (ed) Prabhat K. Singh The Creative Contours of Ruskin
Bond Pencraft Publication N.D. 1995.
15- Nat Hentoff. Fiction for Teenagers. Only Connect; Readings on Children’s
Literature (ed) Sheila Egoff G. T Stubbs and L F Ashey. Oxford University
Press. Toronto, 1969.

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3.2. VAGRANTS IN THE VALLEY: JOURNEY AS A MOTIF.

Vcujrants in the Valley is a sequel to The Room on the Roof

The two characters, Rusty and Kishen continue their journey towards

Dehra and the security of their room on the roof.

The two adolescents are on the road. They are vagrants. They

have run away from their homes. Both have a common purpose. They

want to be away from their cunning adult relatives. They prefer jungle

to a home. But they are not aimless wanderers. They have a goal, a

destination. They are moving towards their room on the roof in Dehra.

It is a journey towards the security of a room of their own. They have

to pass through a jungle, cross a river and meet many stranger before

they reach their final destination. The journey motif continues in this

novel and is more distinct.

Rusty meets a stranger, an American businessman, in the

waiting room of the railway station. Ruskin Bond makes Rusty narrate

the story of The Room on the Roof to the stranger, thus connecting the

two novels. For a reader who has not read the earlier novel, it provides

a continuation in the theme of journey.

The two boys board the train at night. Early in the morning they
are forced to slip out of the carriage on the side facing jungle. This is

very much in tune with the theme of the elders pushing them out of

the safety of the home into the wild world. For the boys it is the jungle

filled with wild animals, which offers solace.

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 On the way they pass through a field, and collect a few corn­

cobs for breakfast. They roast them and eat them after they cover two

miles in the jungle. They decide to walk the remaining 12 miles

without speaking. But their thoughts are similar. Both want each

other’s company. They care for each other. As an adolescent Rusty is

learning to take responsibility. He takes upon himself the

responsibility of Kishen who is younger to him.

“Rusty was thinking, I do not know how but when we get to

Dehra I have got to make a living for both of us. Kishen is too young to

look after himself. He will only get into trouble. I would not like to

leave him alone even for a little while. And Kishen was thinking, we

will get money somehow. There are many ways of getting money. I do

not mind anything as long as we are together. I do not mind anything

as long as I am not alone”1, (pp. 672)

This feeling of companionship and love is what an adolescent

wants. As a contrast there is the callousness of the adults who do not

understand this basic need of a child. They are too busy in their own

world to care about the child’s needs. In the barren world of the

selfish adults, there is this spring of love from their peer group. They

find solace in each other’s company.

Ruskin Bond’s fiction is replete with allegory and symbols. As

the boys keep thinking of their soothing love for each other they hear

the sound of rushing water. Water symbolizes life, hope and energy.

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They are each other’s hope and draw energy from their loving and

caring relationship.

“They removed their shoes. Tying them together by laces and

hanging them about their necks and holding hands for security they

stepped into the water” They cross the river holding on to each other.

As they cross the jungle they have a surprise meeting with a full-

grown tiger. Both of them, too frightened to move, stand staring at the

tiger. The tiger, as surprised to see the boys as the boys themselves,

after a moment’s hesitation crosses the path and disappears into the

forest, without so much as a growl. The boys get back their voice only

after they cross the jungle and reach the village.

“I think we frightened that tiger more than it frightened us” said

Kishen “why, it did not even roar!”

“And good thing it didn’t, otherwise we might not have been

here”. They laughed at themselves, and when they laughed, they were

happy, (pp. 674)

Rusty felt more at ease with Kishen than he did with anyone

else - probably because Kishen had been one of his first friends, and

they had grown swiftly together from childhood to adolescence.

As though they had a premonition or as if the forest was a

better place, when they finally reached the town which had been their

home, it seemed suddenly strange and heartless as though it did not

recognize them anymore.

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 Life is full of surprises and the second surprise for them after

the encounter with the tiger, was their encounter with the lock on

their room on the roof. They were as stunned as they were on

encountering the tiger.

“Afterwards they walked through the noisy crowded bazaar

which they knew so well, past the clock tower up the steps of their old

room. They were ready to flop down on the string cot and sleep for a

week. But when they reached the top of the steps they found the door

locked. It was not their lock, but a heavy, unfamiliar padlock, and its

presence was ominous.” (pp.677)

They could find a place in an abandoned church to spend the

night. Kishen’s mother’s friend Mrs. Bhushan decids to take him in

her custody and Rusty coaxes him to join them. Rusty’s responsibility

of Kishen being passed over to Mrs Bhushan he continues his

journey. He also makes new friends like Davinder, Sudheer the

Lafanga and Somi. He accepts Hathi’s invitation to visit him in the

Garhwal mountains. When he meets Mr.Pettigrew to learn more about

his father whom he had lost as a young boy, he comes to know about

his aunt in Garhwal. He decides to go to Garhwal in search of his

aunt.

Sudheer the Lufunga helps Rusty to find his aunt. He is a true

friend and with all his way-wardness he emerges as a good friend of

Rusty. After meeting his aunt he walks down the valley to reach

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Rishikesh. Finally Rusty declares his desire to put an end to vagrancy

and return to Dehra.

“I do not know Sudheer, what is the use of anything for that

matter? What would be the use of staying with you? I want to give

some direction to my life. I want to work. I want to be free. I want to be

able to write. I cannot wander about the hills and plains with you

forever.” (pp. 749)

After his return to Dehra, he had a meeting with his friends

Ganga and Devindu. His aunt had returned some books which his

father had left for him. One of them turned out to be a legacy, as it

was a first edition of Alice in Wonderland. Mr. Pettigrew gave him

some money as advance for the rare edition which helped him to buy

a ticket to England.

The journey seemed to have come to an end and with Kishan

settled with his relatives Rusty’s mission was over..

“Already the dream was fading. That’s life, thought Rusty. You

can’t run away from it and survive. You can’t be a vagrant forever. You

are getting nowhere, so you’ve got to stop somewhere. Kishen has

stopped. He is thrown in with his lot with the settled income - he had

to. Even the Mougli left the wolf-pack to return to his own people. And

India was changing. This great formless mass was taking some sort of

shape at last. He had to stop now, and find a place for himself or go

forward to disaster” (pp. 753).

98
 After a hurried farewell to his friends in the railway station,

Rusty found himself face to face with the American businessman

whom he had met at the Railway waiting room in the beginning of the

novel. This provides a full circle to the journey or vagrancy of the

youngsters. Each of them had reached somewhere. Rusty decided to

go to England. Kishen met his relatives.

These two novels of adolescence explore the inner space of an

adolescent’s mind. They express in the most natural way the traumas

and tribulations of a teenager in search of identity and freedom with a

desire to establish himself. As Meena .G. Khorana puts it, “His novels

although originally intended for adults, address typically adolescent

concerns of identity, conflict with adult society and teenage sexuality

with seriousness and candor. Both novels fill a void in the children’s

literature of India where adolescent novels, far from exploring the

inner person are limited to mysteries and adventures or novels of

progress”12

References:

1- Raskin Bond: Collected Fiction. Penguin India. New Delhi, 1999.

2- Meena. G. Khorana. The Search for Identity, Journey as Metaphor in

The Room on the Roof, (ed) Prabhat K. Singh. The Creative contours of
Ruskin Bond. Pencraft Publications N.D, 1995.

99
3.3. DELHI IS NOT FAR: FRIENDS AND COMPANIONS.

Delhi is Not Far, is another novel of adolescence where the

role of family which is crucial in the life of an adolescent is analyzed.

Especially for the children family provides the security and helps them

develop into confident and fearless individuals. It gives them strength

and stability. In Ruskin Bond’s writings we see the child without a

family and the effect of loneliness on his life. His protagonist is an

innocent victim of broken marriage, a circumstance beyond his

control. In the novel, Delhi is Not Far Bond handles this sensitive issue

of the child whose family is snatched away mercilessly from him. This

is done in a simple and subtle manner. Bond does not indulge in

moralizing or commenting. He doesn’t play the role of an adult talking

about the teenager’s issues. Here, in his writings, an adolescent goes

through the trials and tribulation and the reader is left to draw his

own conclusions.

The narrator has no family of his own. He meets a teenager

Suraj whose family is snatched away during partition. There is also a

girl who has no protection of family to turn to. These are the teenagers

hungry for love and the sense of security that it provides. They come
together as birds of the same feather. They understand each other and

their need for support. Bond is a past master in handling such

adolescent themes. In this novel we find a powerful portrayal of this

lost child, his loneliness and powerlessness. These adolescents’ world

100
is one of failure, poverty, drunken and abusive elders and broken

marriages.

In his novels Bond depicts the characters in their true colours.

His transparent honesty in depicting the psychology of an adolescent,

lost in the world of selfish and abusive adults, sets his writings apart.

He addresses the sensitive issue of emerging sexuality with

understanding and sympathy. He is realistic in his approach. As the

developmental psychologists Harris and Liehert put it, “With the onset

of adolescence the sexual identity of childhood is suddenly

complicated by powerful chemical and physical changes in the body

that promote sexual and romantic interests”1

In Delhi is Not Far the narrator develops relationships,

emotional and physical with Suraj and Kamla. Both of them are

homeless adolescents. They share each other’s concerns and

understand each other’s need for mutual support. They are lonely and

helpless till they meet each other.

It is this theme of loneliness that permeates throughout in all

his writings .

“I wonder why God ever bothered to make men when he had the

whole wide beautiful world to himself I had said. “Why did he find it

necessary to share it with others?”

“Perhaps he felt lonely” said Suraj. (pp. 772)2

It is the same feeling that brings Kamla the teenaged girl close

101
to these boys. One fine morning she appears on their doorstep with

‘rakhi’, which baffles them.

“She tied the silver tinsel round our wrists and I said-“Kamla we

are proud to be your brothers and we would like to make you some

gift. But at the moment there is no money with us”.

“I want your protection, not your money” said Kamla. “I want to

feel that I am not alone in the world” (op. 782)

Bond touches upon the girl child and her problems. Adolescent

girls like Kamla are always exploited. As adolescents there is not

much of a difference in their vulnerability.

“At a certain age a boy is like young wheat, growing, healthy, on

the verge of manhood. His eyes are alive, his mind quick, his gestures

confident. You cannot mistake him. This is the most fascinating age

when a boy becomes a man - it is interesting both physically and

mentally. The growth of the body’s hair, the toning of the muscle, the

consciousness of growing, and changing and maturing - never again

will there be so much change and development in so short a period of

time. The body exudes virility, is full of currents and counter currents.

For a girl puberty is a frightening age when alarming changes

begin to happen to her body. For a boy it is an age of self-assertion, of

a growing confidence in himself and in his attitude to the world. His

physical changes are a source of happiness and pride” (pp. 779)

The delicate Bondsian humour is evident in his depiction of

102
beggars. His observations on begging as a profession are interesting.

“The beggars in the whole are a thriving community and it came as no

surprise to me when municipality decided to place a tax on begging”.

The stoiy of Ganpat Ram, the bent double beggar provides an

element of fantasy and good natured humour.

There is an escape from the crowded Peepal nagar into the quiet

farm on the way to a village, when the boys decide to stay under the

crooked tree for a while. Surrounded by greenery they spend a few

hours in the lap of mother nature, far from the noisy and dusty town.

Bond’s prose turns poetic as he describes the place -

“I heard a cricket singing in the crooked tree, the cooing of

pigeons which dwelt in the walls of the old well; quiet breathing of

Suraj; a rustling in the leaves of the tree, the distant hum of an

airplane”.(pp. 792) He turns melancholic and philosophic as he talks

about life and death. Throughout the novel there is a string of sadness

and helplessness. It is the attack of fits that Suraj had to undergo

every now and then. It is the utter helplessness of Kamla who

becomes a victim of circumstances. There is talk of death when they

see a procession of mourners with a dead body. Suraj expresses his

respect for the dead and the narrator expresses his faith in love

“It must be difficult to live on after the one you have loved has

died”.

“I don’t know. It has not happened to me. If a love is strong I

103
cannot see its end - it cannot end in death .... I feel ..... even

physically you would exist for me somehow”, (pp.804)

Ruskin Bond is trying to reach immortality through love. It is

Krishna the God of love who features in this novel often.

“Krishna is the best loved God of all the Gods. Young mothers

laugh and weep as they read or hear the pranks of his childhood ...

Young men pray to be as tall and strong ... young girls dream of a
lover as daring as Krishna”, (pp. 805-806)

Suraj plays the flute and the children gather round him to

listen. It is love that is life giving force. The youth is full of life and has

faith in love. Only love can conquer all.

The desire to be loved and the yearning for

companionship caused by the lack of family and sense of security,

work as a strong bond of friendship which brings the trio together.

“I think I hate families. I am jealous of them. Their sense of

security, of independence, infuriates me. To every family I am an

outsider because I have no family. A man without a family is a social

outcaste. He has no credentials. A man’s credentials are his father

and his property. His mother is of no consequence either; it is her

family - her father that matters.

So I am glad that I do not belong to a family and at the same

time sad because in our country if you do not belong to a family, you

are a piece of driftwood. And so two pieces of driftwood come together

104
and finding themselves caught in the same current move along with it

until they are trapped in a counter current and dispersed. And that is

the way it is with me. I must cling to someone as long as

circumstances will permit it." (pp. 781-782)

Bond touches upon the very essence of Hindu teachings of Lord

Krishna in Bhagavad-Gita, when he compares human body to a log of

wood floating in the river. In his fiction people come together, caught

in the stream of life, move together for a while and live together and

ultimately they part to move ahead. They separate as naturally as they

come together and without regrets. There is an acceptance of life as it

is. Bond reaches the highest reality, that is life. He doesn’t make any

fuss over it. He is deeply attached and at the same time unattached

like a ‘sthithapragya ‘.

Finally the narrator gets a job in Delhi and decides to move,

leaving behind the small town. He takes Suraj with him. Kamla

refuses to accompany.

The seed of sensuality seen in the Delhi is Not Far is at the root

of another adolescent novel. “The Sensualist

“There were no inhibitions in my friendship with Suraj. We

spoke of bodies as we spoke of minds, and discussed the problem of

one as we would discuss those of other, for they are really the same

problems.” (pp. 780)

The duality of body and mind forms major part of the novella.

105
 The protagonist’s observations in this novella connect it with the

novel The Sensualist. “A few things reassure me. The desire to love

and he loved. The beauty and ugliness of the human body, the

intricacy of its design. These things fascinate me. Some times I make

love as a sort of exploration of all that is physical. Falling in love

becomes an exploration of the mind” (pp. 778)

References:

Harris, Judith Rich and Robert Liehert. The Child: Development from
Birth to Adolescence. Prentice Hall N.Y 1985.
2- The page numbers in this text refer to:
Ruskin Bond ; Collected Fiction. Penguin India New Delhi 1999.

106
3.4. AVU&mQMimEQNS.

A Flight of Pigeons is a historical novel set in the stormy

period of Indian Sepoy Mutiny 1857. It is based on a diary published

privately in England as “Mariam” by J.F. Fanlhome. Mariam, mother

of fourteen years old Ruth Labadoor has a double inheritance with

French father and Muslim mother. This helps her to get acceptance of

the Indian Muslims and at the same time remain as a “Phirangarf, a

foreigner. Ruskin Bond, with his lineage of Indian and European

identity finds himself at home with India. He is accepted and

respected. He could depict this duality of Mariam with perfect case

and understanding.

The events are narrated by the teenaged girl Ruth. It is about

the trauma of the period in Indian history, ridden with political

disturbance. The events take place in a small district town

Shahjahanpur, 250 miles from Delhi. Initially in the revolt of the

Sepoy Mutiny, 1857, the Indians had an upper hand. The Europeans

found themselves in the hands of the natives. Their lives were under

threat. Ironically enough the mixed social heritage of Labadoors at

first made them victims of the holocaust and then it enabled them to

escape and survive with the help of their attackers.

Mr. Labadoor is killed by the rebels in the Church but Ruth and
Maria escape with the help of their Hindu friends and servants. Later
they are passed on to the Muslims. Javed Khan provides them shelter
and protection. Young Javed falls passionately in love with Ruth and

107
tries to convince Mariam to marry her daughter to him. Mariam
displays great courage and cunning in delaying the marriage proposal.
Ruth finds this young admirer of her as both interesting and
terrifying. Javed emerges as a very balanced and disciplined
youngster. He doesn’t harass or trouble the ladies. He patiently waits
for Mariam’s approval. He admires Ruth’s beauty. He is fascinated by
her and his infatuation makes him romantic and interesting . He has
a sense of honour that makes him behave with ladies in a respectful

manner.
“A Pir, a wandering hermit, who was in the group touched our
captor on the shoulder and said ‘Javed you have taken away these
unfortunates to amuse yourself. Give me your word of honour that
you will not ill-treat or kill them... Javed Khan, his face still muffled
brought his sword to a slant before his face 1 swear by my sword that
I will neither kill nor ill-treat them.”

Take care for your soul, Javed. You have taken an oath which
no Pathan would break and still expect to survive. Let no harm come
to these two or you may expect a short lease of life” (pp. 846-847)

Javed promises, Hipon his honour’ to respect and treat the

ladies with honour. Further the youth could not resist making his
fascination for Ruth known to his aunt. Ruskin Bond is once again
using his method of making fun of these things. He leaves it to us to
decide which of these saved the ladies, whether it is their beauty,
their dual heritage, the pir’s insistence, Javed’s infatuation, or is it
just the effective handling of the whole situation by Mariam.

108
 “How can I make you understand the fascination this girl
exerted over me when she was in her father’s house? The very first
time I saw her, I was struck by her beauty. She shone like Zohra, the
morning star. Looking at her now, I realize the truth of the saying that
a flower never looks so beautiful as when it is on its parent stem.
Break it and it withers in the hand ..”(pp 849)

His admiration for Ruth’s mother is no less. He is fascinated by

her courage. He admits that he was ‘awed’, ‘subdued’ and “unmanned’
as she hurled herself at him like an enraged tigress and “presented
her breast to his sword.” (pp 850)

As Javed describes his first impression of his love at first sight,

he calls Ruth as ‘a rose touched by the breath of wind, a dove-like
creature.’ (pp 850). The title ‘Flight of Pigeons” takes its origin from
this impression of the girl, beautiful and helpless like a dove, with her
mother on the run. The theme is elaborated in the chapter titled
“White Pigeons’. The prediction of the fakir Mian Saheb to Abdul Rauf
Khan, as the fakir discarding his white gown, put on a black one
‘suddenly’ and ‘without any apparent reason’. Bond plays on the
symbolism of color white. Here it stands also for the white man, or the
firangan.

“He told them that the restoration of Firangi rule was as certain
as the coming of doomsday. It would be another hundred years, he
said, before the foreigners could be made to leave ‘See. Here they
come,’ he cried pointing to the North where a flock of white pigeons
could be seen hovering over the sky. They come flying like white
pigeons which, when disturbed, fly away and circle, and come down to

109
rest again. White pigeons from the hills!” (pp. 870)

With the return of the British in Shahajahanpur the ladies

decide to go there. In “The Final Journey” they face many difficulties.
The presence of mind and the courage of Mariam helps them escape
unscathed. With everyone settled finally, the narrator has this to say
about Javed Khan.

“Javed Khan disappeared and never seen again - I have always

hoped that he succeeded in escaping. I cannot help feeling a sneaking
admiration for him. He was very wild and muddle headed and often
cruel, but he was also very handsome and gallant, and there was in
him a streak of nobility which he did his best to conceal. But perhaps
I really admire him because he thought I was beautiful.” (pp 896)

The novel has all the ingredients of a romance. Its setting in the
19th century, the mutiny, the description of the people running for
their life. It has an element of suspense and thrill. The theme of
romance and infatuation runs throughout the story. It has an appeal
of its own. It stands out as a different type of novel. It is not in the
same vein as Bond’s other writings. It has a well designed plot and
characterization. There is very little of the true Ruskin Bond in this
novel. But for the under current of humour and an air of irony it
would have been a novel written by any other author except Ruskin
Bond.

References:
!• Ruskin Bond ; Collected Fiction Penguin Books India New Delhi, 1999
(The page number in the text refer to this book).
110
3.5 THE SENSUALIST: A CAUTIONARY TALE.

The teenager, wh© is an alter ego ef the author, narrates the

story of an adolescent’s growth into manhood. Here the child is not

growing into a man the natural way but is forced into the adult world

by the selfish adults. That is why there is an air of helplessness and

the tragedy. This aspect is remarkably absent in most of his writings

for adolescents.

As the protagonist narrates his eneounter with the adult world

and his adventures of exploring the basic human instincts we can

trace the development of the individual’s ego consciousness - his

awareness of his own strengths and weaknesses - This in turn

enables him to face the arduous tasks with which life confronts him.

Once again the novella confirms the theory of Psychologist like

Jung, who argue that an adolescent’s search for identity can be

viewed as a replication of the myth motive of the hero who goes on a

journey “to discover and assert his personality”. In the novella the

narrator undertakes a journey in which he meets his alter ego in the

form of a mystic in a cave. As this cave man unfolds the story of his

adventure- crossing forbidden realms, facing many challenges and

listening to the ‘Devil’ in his heart- he also “evaluates and questions

long held values and beliefs” in order to “acquire the freedom and

responsibility of adulthood”1 Reed.

Ill
 The recluse in the story has reached “the stage of diffusion

which is distinguished by avoidance, lack of commitment, and

withdrawal from life. Harris and Liehert

First published in the book form in *Strangers in the Night; Two

Novellas” in 1996 by Penguin Books India, the Sensualist was

originally written and published in the form of a serial in the Bombay

magazine Debonair twenty-nine years ago. During Emergency period

the author was dragged to the court on charges of obscenity. He

became defensive and did not publish it for the next 20years. It

appeared in the Penguin India’s Omnibus Volume in the year 1996. In

this volume he adds a subtitle “The Sensualist: A Cautionary TaleT. In

the introduction he warns that the book is not intended for school

classroom. He defends himself by saying that “Just now and then I let

my hair down and indulge in a little gentle ribaldry or a tale of desire

under the deodars” 2

About the controversial novel The Sensualist he says,

“The Sensualist is the story of a man enslaved by an

overpowering sex-drive but it takes him on to the downward spiraling
road to self-destruction; you could even say it has a moral”.3

At the same time he says that, The Sensualist is not

autobiographical. He says that there is a Jekyll and Hyde in each of
us. These two personalities warring with each other all the time and
“to that extent it reveals something of the author’s psyche”.4

112
 The protagonist is an adolescent, who is the only child for his
parents. The teenager has all the material comforts. He has a family
with loving and caring mother. Father being a busy businessman is

too engrossed in making money to take care of his son’s emotional

needs. The young boy gets seduced by the maidservant and with no

one to check him he falls into the whirlpool of body and mind. The
desire for gratification of senses aroused in the little boy by the adult

female leads him down the spiraling road to destruction. His mother is

worried about the boy’s strange behavior but unable to understand.

The father tries to involve him in work and sends him to Delhi to take
part in the Industrial Exhibtion. But the boy is not interested. He gets

down from train midway and goes wandering.. He helps the young boy

Roop to reach his home in the hills and accompanies him. Here he
meets Roop’s mother, another adult who exploits him.

“ I was to be enslaved by this woman in a way that no woman

had ever been enslaved by me. As time passed, I became aware of her

strange and powerful matriarchal passion. It was not the passive

worship of Mulia, but something quite different.”5 (pp. 134)

It has a moral so long as the good part of the narrator’s

personality succeeds in overcoming the influence of the recluse in the

cave. It is also a cautionary tale as the recluse says that he had

misused the gift and had lost it. The cave is psychological symbol of

withdrawal. The man withdraws and hides himself from the world. It

is dark and clammy inside the cave, “a home for those who despise

113
the light - bats rodents and hollow men...... I want to flee from the

cave, from all within it. Renunciation? He has not renounced the

world, he has hidden from it. And I wonder how many thousands

there are like him - men who have run not simply from the world but

from themselves. Men, who hating themselves, cannot bear to see

their own reflections in the faces of the other men”, (pp.142)

The author uses the technique of narrative within narrative.

Hence both the narrators form part of the author’s voice. Ruskin Bond

leaves nothing to the reader’s imagination. He acknowledges influence

of Conrad and his theme of evil. There is some element of sadness in

this story which is alien to Bond’s nature. Bond has a comic vision

and he most often laughs at the weaknesses of men and women. His

sense of humanity pervades all his writings and makes them

delightful to read.

The recluse in the story is Bond’s another self. He is his “secret

sharer”. In the end Bond conquers this pessimism and gains victory
over his darker self. As he leaves the cave, he also leaves the cave man
behind... “I leave my dead self in the cave and continue my search for
the perfect stranger in the night”, (pp.143)

Reference:

L Reed, Artha J.S. Reaching Adolescence: The young adult book and the
school Holt Rinehart and Winston N.Y 1985.
2- Ruskin Bond. Introduction Strangers in The Night. Penguin books India.
New Delhi, 1996.
3- I hid.
4- Ibid
5- Ruskin Bond Strangers in The Night. Penguin books India. New Delhi,
1966. (The page numbers in this text refer to this book).
114
3.6 A HANDFUL OF NUTS.

A Handful of Nuts is full of his reminiscences. Here he relives

his adolescent days. As he puts it - “A Handful of Nuts is about myself

at twenty-one, an age that is important to each one of us. It is an age

when we have to come to terms with our own natures if we are to

survive the rigors of life’s long journey to the end of the night”1

Published in the volume Strangers in the Night, Two Novellas,

along with “The Sensualist: A Cautionary Tald’, this novella is a

delightful narrative dealing with the adolescent’s vision of the world.

At the age of 21, on the threshold of adulthood an adolescent feels

jubilant and full of life. Every girl and boy aspire to become heroine or

a hero. They are romantic and full of dreams. At times these things

lead to comic errors. In the introduction Ruskin Bond admits -“It is a

self-portrait of the author as a sensitive and occasionally mischievous

youth. Or rather of a mischievous elderly author looking back on this

innocent youth”.2

Even though he has tried to capture his youthful days and some

of the characters are his real life friends, he asks us not to take it as

straight autobiography. As a good story-teller, he has a selective

memory, partly from the real life and partly from a sheer imaginary

world.

The Room on the Roof, written by an adolescent and A Handful

Nuts, written by the elderly author about his adolescent days make an

interesting study in contrast. The Room on the Roof is a serious

115
account of an adolescent’s adventures. At that age everything

assumes seriousness. The author himself an adolescent depicts the

events with sincerity and that gives it an appeal. The events depicted

in A Handful of Nuts are more of a light hearted escapades than

serious adventures. We can see the distinctly different approach to the

same period in the life of the author. When he narrates his romance

with Mrs. Kapoor, it assumes a seriousness of purpose. It is an

important happening in his life. The impact is so deep that it has its

effects on the action of the protagonist in his later stage. It is his love

for Mrs. Kapoor and her memoiy that prompts him to take the

responsibility of Kishan. He even changes his plans of going to

England. He decides to leave for England only after Kishen is settled

comfortably. In the novella (A Handful of Nuts’ the actions of the youth

are seen through the eyes of an elderly author ‘mischievous’ as he

claims, as innocent pranks. His attraction for Indu is a light hearted

crush and has little effect on his life. In the beginning of the fourth

chapter the author explains.

“Why have I chosen to write about the twenty first year of my

life?

Well, for one thing, its often the most significant year in any

young person’s life. A time for falling in love, a time to set about

making your dreams come true, a time to venture forth, to blaze new

trails, take risks do your own thing, follow your star...”3

116
 It is an age for fantasy and romantic infatuation. It turns out to

be a delightful comedy as Bond makes fun of the youth - the wedding

band unwittingly breaking into funeral march, the narrator’s birthday

celebration, the circus, fascination for the circus girls, the tiger’s

escape from the tent. In the epilogue he gives an account of the nuts

after forty years. A Handful of Nuts is more of a memoir which is light

hearted and full of humour than a serious novella.

This will lead to the question whether a writer writing for

adolescents can do justice only when he is himself an adolescent?

If the author can go back to his adolescent days and relive the

experience he can come close to the reader’s heart. While writing for

children, author has to go back in time and actually re-live his

childhood. The success of the book for adolescents depends on to

what extent the author succeeds in this endeavor. Adolescents do not

like moralizing or preaching. They simply don’t want to be told about

anything. It is an age of rebellion, challenging the authority. They like

to share their feelings with their friends, the peer group. Hence the

author has to be their friend, talking in their own language. Ruskin

Bond’s The Room on the Roof and Vagrants in the Valley are the best

examples of writing for an adolescent in India.

References:

L Ruskin Bond. Introduction Strangers in The Night Penguin books India.

New Delhi, 1966.
2- ibid
3- ibid pp.14.

117