Ruskin Bond is an inveterate diarist, but over the years the nature of what he wants to record has changed, for ‘In the autumn of my life, I grow reflective’. Although Landour itself is a magical world—where every month has its own flower, every walker his own style, and the countryside is filled with a beauty all its own—in his mind Bond ranges further afield. In Landour Days, he ponders on the experience of being a writer, on writers he has known and those that he loves reading, and on critics, handwriting and typewriters. Filled with warmth and gentle humour, Landour Days captures the timeless rhythm of life in the mountains, and the serene wisdom of one of India’s best-loved writers.

An enchanting collection of stories from the heartland of India Ruskin Bond’s simple characters, living amidst the lush forests of the Himalayan foothills, are remarkable for their quiet heroism, courage and grace, and age-old values of honesty and fidelity. Residents of nondescript villages and towns, they lead lives that are touched by natural beauty as well as suffering—the loss of a loved parent, unfulfilled dreams, natural calamities, ghostly visitations, a respected teacher turned crooked, strangers who make a nuisance of themselves—which only reinforces their abiding faith in God, family and neighbour. Told in Bond’s distinctive style, these stories are a magnificent evocation of an India that may be fast disappearing.

The result of two decades of research, this volume on Mussoorie and Landour by Ruskin Bond and Ganesh Saili documents the daily life of this old English summer hill-town.

Ruskin Bond emerges again, with a delightful set of sketches set in and on the way to his beloved Mussoorie. With an endearing affection and nostalgia for his home of over forty years, Mr Bond describes his journeys to and from Mussoorie over the years, and then delves into the daily scandals surrounding his life and friends in the (not so) sleepy hill town. The pieces in this collection are characterised by an incorrigible sense of humour and an eye for ordinary-and most often unnoticed-details that are so essential to the geographic, social and cultural fabric of a place. Accompanied by beautiful illustrations, Roads to Mussoorie is a memorable evocation of a writer's surroundings and the role they have played in his work and life.

Hailed as a "wondrous book" by Gretel Ehrlich, and winner of the Kekoo Naoroji Book Award for Himalayan Literature—a journey of healing that becomes a pilgrimage for the soul. Stephen Alter was raised by American missionary parents in the hill station of Mussoorie, in the foothills of the Himalayas, where he and his wife, Ameeta, now live. Their idyllic existence was brutally interrupted when four armed intruders invaded their house and viciously attacked them, leaving them for dead. The violent assault and the trauma of almost dying left him questioning assumptions he had lived by since childhood. For the first time, he encountered the face of evil and the terror of the unknown. He felt like a foreigner in the land of his birth. This book is his account of a series of treks he took in the high Himalayas following his convalescence—to Bandar Punch (the monkey’s tail), Nanda Devi, the second highest mountain in India, and Mt. Kailash in Tibet. He set himself this goal to prove that he had healed mentally as well as physically and to re-knit his connection to his homeland. Undertaken out of sorrow, the treks become a moving soul journey, a way to rediscover mountains in his inner landscape. Weaving together observations of the natural world, Himalayan history, folklore and mythology, as well as encounters with other pilgrims along the way, Stephen Alter has given us a moving meditation on the solace of high places, and on the hidden meanings and enduring mystery of mountains.

Ruskin Bond's first novel, The Room on the Roof, written when he was seventeen, won the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. Since then he has written several novels (including Vagrants in the Valley, A Flight of Pigeons and Delhi Is Not Far), essays, poems and children's books, many of which have been published by Penguin India. He has also written over 500 short stories and articles that have appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1993 and the Padma Shri in 1999.

Triple talaq, or talaq-e-bidat, is one of the most debated issues in the Muslim world. From antiquity, the Muslim faith has been plagued by the portrayal of Muslim men regularly misusing this perceived “right” to divorce their wives instantly by simply uttering “talaq” thrice. The Supreme Court of India, in the landmark judgment of Shayara Bano v. Union of India, has taken the step to declare this form of talaq unconstitutional and to strike down its practice. In Triple Talaq: Examining Faith, Salman Khurshid, who intervened to offer the court an amicus brief in the “Triple Talaq case”, offers a straightforward yet comprehensive overview of this complicated issue. Explaining the reasons behind the court’s decision, he dives deep into other aspects of this practice: why it is wrong; why it has thrived; what was the judicial history of this issue; what the Quran and Muslim religious leaders say about it; and what the comparative practices in other countries are. A handy guide to this landmark decision and what it means for Muslims in India, this book is written not just for the theologian, but also for the common reader.

One of India's finest and most prolific writers, Ruskin Bond has been putting pen to paper for well over six decades. Since The Room on the Roof-his award-winning debut novel which introduced readers to the unforgettable Rusty, the orphan from Dehradun-Bond has created characters both charming and eccentric, which have endured in popular imagination. And, in what is perhaps his most towering achievement, Bond has brought to pulsing life the mountains, valleys and rivers of Garhwal, as well as the quiet magic of small, tucked-away places, in book after book. The Writer on the Hill is a comprehensive selection of Bond's fiction and non-fiction, both popular and little-known. In 'Masterji', a young man meets his old Hindi teacher on a train platform, in handcuffs. In the excerpt from The Room on the Roof, Rusty stands up to his bullying guardian. 'Man and Leopard' describes, in mesmerizing prose, a heart-breaking encounter between man and the wild. And, in 'Once upon a Mountain Time', Bond creates a charming portrait of his little patch of earth in Mussoorie. A tribute to one of the most popular and loved writers of India, The Writer on the Hill is also a celebration of the quiet, unhurried life, lived at one's own pace. This volume will delight Bond's fans everywhere.

It is very kind of people to invite me to their parties, especially as I do not throw parties myself or invite anyone anywhere. At more than one party I have been known to throw things at people. In spite of this-or maybe because of it-I get invited to these affairs. There's nothing like being able to see the funny side of things in life. Whether it is a belt that decides to get hooked on to another passenger's bag or monkeys who visit and take refuge in the loo or even the omelettes that don't turn out exactly the way they were intended, Ruskin Bond brings alive each of these situations with wry humour and a generous dose of wit. Party Time in Mussoorie is as much fun to read as it is to attend any of the weird and wonderful parties Ruskin Bond describes in this collection.