Ruskin Bond's The Railway Gang

 

 The Railway Gang written by Ruskin Bond always makes me think about several anecdotes that invariably happened in my own life. The description regarding Chottu the young stray dog exactly connects to the one I have seen and which keep moving me whenever there is a stray dog seen out anywhere. In general, most of the people do not care their existence unless they are in the news for having bitten some child. As I probed deeply, found that in almost all cases, the said victim have had bullied or provoked first but people would forget it or would not notice it in hurry as the child was hurt is seen on surface. So everybody goes against the dog naturally.

And having leftovers and unwanted stuff is a matter of big fight with fellow dogs. Who knows sometimes they could go hungry for days. And hardly anyone is there to provide some morsels of food. In our Ruskin Bond's story, Chottu has some shelter in that Railway station and somebody like Kishore would throw a parota now and then. But there were many Chottus are there without any shelter and It's clueless who is there to turn to address the problem. Somewhere we have to end this pathetic life for innocent puppies but how..? Yes, here is a solution. Every dog lover should adopt a stray one and our indigenous dogs are no way inferior compared to any foreign breed.

Ruskin Bond described passionately how happy Chottu was when it came back from a new place. I don't think a writer without an immense kind heart towards animals couldn't tell that sort of soulful tale. We see exquisite warmth and compassion all through the story of The Railway Gang. It told us that animals too have heart wrenching interaction among them and to decipher it one must have empathy towards them. And one more eyeopener is not to getting asleep while we are in swaying compartment, else we would land up in an unidentified station like our Chottu to slunk away in the crowd. And who knows there might be a tough gang of semi wild hounds.

----- Murthy KVVS  

Bonding over Ruskin Bond

There are many reasons to have a special interest in reading Ruskin Bond's writings. Mostly people say that he is a writer for children but in my opinion he is a writer for all ages who have a heart for relishing childhood memories. Who hates one's own childhood and its enchanting hues of experiences..? None, I think. In fact, Ruskin Bond came my way in the phase of grown up, accidentally. The first book I read is a paperback titled "Great stories for kids". Wondered at his crafting of tale telling process. But at the same time ,thrilled being transported into my childhood. 

In our surroundings, we have some colonial buildings in dilapidated condition with variety of trees, plants and insects around. Whenever visited the place, we felt a chill in the spine. Of course, haunting spirits were always there to get scared of. The same things I found in one of the stories of Ruskin Bond. On the hill top with such old building having lived by a mysterious Anglo-Indian woman. And a small girl tryst with her still makes me imaging like anything.

And the way the writer portrays every insect, plant, tree and other animals is spellbinding and how badly we ignore sometimes nature's bounty though it stands in front of our own eyes. I started observing flora and fauna of our location soon after finishing this book. It made me a new human being in terms of exploring the nature at its best. Now I knew the names of many kinds of insects and its behaviours. And grew interested in whatever the plant come my way. I became nature sensitive in brief.

After that, the book I read was " Our trees still grow in Dehra".  Escape from Java is the mesmerizing story. It sounds like the first hand experience. An exodus from South East Asia let know us many issues of  bygone years. In this book, stories like "The bent double beggar, Coming home to Dehra and other ones attracted me for different reasons. I am planning to read many more of his books in the days to come and my best wishes to the e-magazine, running by the lovers of Ruskin Bond.

(Written for E-Magazine dedicated to Bond's writings)