Why do we read books like this? The nostalgia? I doubt this book will appeal to the younger generation, who don't relate to Pickwick, Billy Bunter, walks in the Hills, Ghost Stories of the Hills, and Misty Days.
If you relate to these, Ruskin Bond's book is for you.
It is a throwback to a slower time when we didn't rush. It is a throwback to when people were willing to have a conversation.
Nostalgia, maybe. ( )

This is a good read! My fascination with all the hilly-sleepy towns really began with Mr. Ruskin Bond's beautiful renderings of Mussoorie and Dehra. I remember reading The Cherry Tree back in school and planting a cherry seed thereafter in my mother's small garden. Beautiful memory indeed! And, reading his experience as a boarding school kid when he had to be away from his father, had me in tears. The book was 'Children who made it big', and for days thereafter, i would cling to my Dad whenever he was home.

When he turned 70, there was an article in a newspaper titled 'And the duck turns 70', and my imagination ran wild when i portrayed him as a duck in one of my school picture-essays. Those were the days of reading Enid Blyton for adventures and then Mr. Bond for the quiet summery evenings that he made breezy for a young, restless kid that was me.

As he suggested in the backward of the book, i started from the last story, and when it was finished, sure did echo R.L.Stevenson- Give to me the life i love!

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