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.

Collection of fourteen fictional and autobiographical short stories.

This volume brings together the best of Ruskin Bond’s prose and poetry. For over four decades, by way of innumerable novels, essays, short stories and poems, the author has mapped out and peopled a unique literary landscape. This anthology has selections from all of his major books and includes the classic novella Delhi Is Not Far.

The stories in this collection capture the essence of the Indian Railways - from the small-town station, at the time of the Raj, to the present day big-city station bursting at the seams. The teening and varied life of the Indian Railway station and its environs have fascinated writers from Jules Verne in the 1870s to more recently Satyajit Ray, R.K. Laxman and more modern writers. In this anthology, one of India's best-known writers makes a selection of greattest railway stories the subcontinent has produced. Julese Verne Rudyard Kipling Flora Annie Steel Hon. J.W. Best Jim Corbett Khushwant Singh Ruskin Bond Manoj Das Intizar Husain Satyajit Ray Bill Aitkin R.K. Laxman Victor Banerjee Manojit Mitra.

From Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling to Satyajit Ray and R. K. Narayan, this text is a collection of spine-chilling tales of the supernatural from India.

Rusty is a quiet, imaginative and sensitive boy who lives with his grandparents in pre-Independence Dehra Dun. Though he is not the adventurous himself, the strangest and most extraordinary things keep happening around him. The house in Dehra is full of strange creatures. Rusty has to deal with everything from his grandfather’s pet python to the ever-inventive Uncle Ken. Visiting his father in wartime Java, Rusty narrowly escapes enemy bombardment, and survives a plane crash in the Arabian Sea. Back in India, he spends his time encountering a ghost in the garden and recreating his grandmother’s youthful days from an old photograph. Then, something totally unexpected happens and Rusty is forced to leave Dehra, his future uncertain ... This volume of Rusty stories, the first in a series, traces Rusty’s development from early childhood to his early teens and is a riveting read for younger and older children alike.

Ten unforgettable tales of fascinating human encounters with animals and birds—of a man-eater that terrorizes an entire village; the strange and wonderful trust that develops between a fierce leopard and a boy; revengeful monkeys who never forgive a woman who grows dahlias; a crow who genuinely thinks human beings are stupid; and many others— that create a world in which men and wild creatures struggle to survive despite each other: a world where, in the end, one is not quite sure which side one is on. Panther’s Moon and Other Stories is another marvellous collection of stories from India’s most-loved author that will once again amuse, enchant, and delight readers of all ages.

Join intrepid heroes and dauntless heroines in their quest for survival against earthquakes, fire, floods and bombs! Live life on the edge with five stories of danger and adventure. Flee with Romi as he rides his cycle straight into the river to get away from a fearsome forest fire; listen in to Ruth’s hair-raising story of escape from rioting sepoys during the uprising of 1857; read about the author’s miraculous flight from Java as Japanese planes bombard the city; witness the havoc wreaked by the deadliest earthquake ever in Rakesh’s town, Shillong; and watch Sita combat a fatal flood. Written in Ruskin Bond’s inimitable style, with doses of humour and excitement, these extraordinary stories are simply unputdownable.

'It is easier to know people in small places. Sometimes you can't help knowing them. Like the boy who walks four miles to school; or the elderly gentleman who is up every morning at five o'clock, taking his morning walk (tap-tap-tap, I hear his walking stick below my window); or that busy little woman gathering firewood for the winter; or the man from the nursery who sells me a potted geranium and ends up telling me the story of his life... So many stories waiting to be told! And, as I have discovered, small towns may be smaller than cities, and there may be fewer people living in them, but the stories they provide a writer with are big, they contain worlds upon worlds within them.'