The Very Best of Ruskin Bond, the Writer on the Hill: Selected Fiction and Non-Fiction (53 page)

As a writer, I have difficulty in doing justice to momentous events, the wars of nations, the politics of power; I am more at ease with the dew of the morning, the sensuous delights of the day, the silent blessings of the night, the joys and sorrows of children, the strivings of ordinary folk and, of course, the ridiculous situations in which we sometimes find ourselves.

We cannot prevent sorrow and pain and tragedy. And yet when we look around us, we find that the majority of people are actually enjoying life! There are so many lovely things to see, there is so much to do, so much fun to be had, and so many charming and interesting people to meet… How can my pen ever run dry?

Almost all my early stories, novellas and essays made their first appearance in different periodicals and anthologies, both Indian and international. I have kept a record of most them, and the details are as follows:

‘The Thief’s Story’,
The Illustrated Weekly of India
;
The Room on the Roof
, first published in the UK by André Deutsch and serialized in India by
The Illustrated Weekly of India
; ‘The Photograph’,
The Illustrated Weekly of India
; ‘A Face in the Dark’,
The Illustrated Weekly of India
; ‘The Tunnel’,
The Road to the Bazaar
, Rupa Publications India; ‘The Kitemaker’,
Short Story International
; ‘Most Beautiful’,
Short Story International
; ‘Wilson’s Bridge’,
The Statesman
; ‘The Superior Man’,
Tales and Legends of India
, Rupa Publications India; ‘The Hare in the Moon’,
Tales and Legends of India
, Rupa Publications India; ‘Toria and the Daughter of the Sun’,
Tales and Legends of India
, Rupa Publications India; ‘Colonel Gardner and the Princess of Cambay’,
The Illustrated Weekly of India
; ‘The Lady of Sardhana’,
The Illustrated Weekly of India
; ‘A Hill Station’s Vintage Murders’,
Strange Men, Strange Places
, Rupa Publications India; ‘A Village in Garhwal’,
Blackwood’s Magazine;
‘Once Upon a Mountain Time’,
The Christian Science Monitor
; ‘Voting at Barlowganj’,
Blackwood’s Magazine
; ‘Sounds I Like to Hear’,
The Christian Science Monitor
; ‘Bhabiji’s House’ first appeared as ‘Punjabi Day’ in
Blackwood’s Magazine
; ‘Break of the Monsoon’,
The Christian Science Monitor
; ‘To See a Tiger’,
The Lady
Magazine; ‘In Grandfather’s Garden’,
The Lady
Magazine; ‘Man and Leopard’,
Blackwood’s Magazine
; ‘Landour Bazaar’,
Blackwood’s Magazine
; ‘Ganga Descends’,
Beautiful Garhwal: Heaven in Himalayas
, Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam; ‘Great Trees of Garhwal’,
The Christian Science Monitor
; ‘Birdsong in the Hills’,
The Christian Science Monitor
; ‘Children of India’,
The Lady
Magazine; ‘Friends of My Youth’,
The India I Love
, Rupa Publications India; ‘Some Hill Station Ghosts’,
Roads to Mussoorie
, Rupa Publications India; ‘Party Time in Mussoorie’,
Roads to Mussoorie
, Rupa Publications India; ‘The Walkers’ Club’, adapted for this book from an essay in
Landour Days: A Writer’s Journal
, Penguin Books India; ‘Love Thy Critic’, adapted for this book from an essay in
Landour Days: A Writer’s Journal
, Penguin Books India; ‘Those Simple Things’,
The Statesman
; ‘A Good Philosophy’,
Deccan Herald
; ‘Life at My Own Pace’,
The Heritage
, Chennai; ‘Upon an Old Wall Dreaming’,
Deccan Herald
; ‘Nina’,
The Lady
Magazine; ‘The Road to Badrinath’,
Beautiful Garhwal: Heaven in Himalayas
, Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam; ‘The Good Earth’,
The Christian Science Monitor
; ‘A Night Walk Home’,
The Statesman
; ‘The Beetle Who Blundered In’ first appeared as ‘Guests Who Come in from the Forest’,
Cricket
Magazine; ‘Some Plants Become Friends’,
Deccan Herald
; ‘Rainy Day in June’,
Deccan Herald
; ‘The Old Gramophone’,
The Best of Ruskin Bond
, Penguin Books India; ‘Who Kissed Me in the Dark?’,
Funny Side Up
, Rupa Publications India; ‘Joyfully I Write’,
The India I Love
, Rupa Publications India.

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