‘Another Day in Landour’: Ruskin Bond’s new book offers a peek inside his world

Apart from some tiny corners of Pinterest and Instagram, journaling seems obsolete. This is especially true, ever since capturing one's day—from what one ate to what one wore—has come down to a click of a button on our smartphones. Easy and convenient!

However, the act of journaling cannot be discounted. There's something simplistic, meditative, and reflective about it. Not only writing, but even reading the daily musings—of someone else—can be quite an experience if that 'somebody else' is none other than Ruskin Bond. A compilation of his delightful, insightful, and often humorous daily journals is Bond's latest, 'Another Day in Landour: Looking Out From My Window'.

"For an old man who can't go out very often, the window is his lifeline to the rest of the world," writes Bond in an entry.

"I have slept beside this window since 1980, and I hope to spend a few more days and nights beside it before going into the great unknown," the much-loved author writes about the window in his room at his picturesque home, Ivy Cottage, in Landour.

While for Bond, this "window is his lifeline to the rest of the world", the book offers a peek inside Bond's world: how he thinks, and what he likes and dislikes. For example, he likes authentic meatballs, and he seems to dislike some dieticians and fitness enthusiasts who are "fanatical know-alls".

It's interesting how Bond encapsulates his deep love for nature and his adopted family in a similar fashion, as he writes about pressing national and international issues (with his signature wit and humour, of course!), with neither less important than the other.

"The human species seems to thrive in pollution. And it's the tendency of nations to go to war with each other that will end up depopulating the planet one day," he writes in one entry. "Mussorie has lost its honeysuckle, and I've lost a front tooth," he writes in another.

Words of wisdom, too, run throughout the book, and so do his musings about old age. For example, "The honeysuckle looked after itself and made no demands; maybe that's why it was neglected", writes the author. He also contemplates how women manage old age better than men.

And in his last entry in the book, the much-acclaimed author says, "After 80, every day is a bonus", and tells the readers to make every moment count. And for Bond, the window remains central.

"I have always maintained that when I've run out of ideas or something to write about, I have only to look out of my window to see something that merits a few lines, or even a page or two, or sometimes a story," he writes.

While it's always a treat to read Bond, his latest, especially, slows you down and makes you notice the world unfolding around you more profoundly. And, who knows, it might even inspire you to keep a journal in its own simplistic way.

 

Book: Another Day in Landour: Looking Out From My Window

Author: Ruskin Bond

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 162

Price: ₹399 (Hardback)

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