Fiction

Description

In the stillness of the air every tree, every leaf, every bough, every tendril of creeper and every petal of minute blossoms seemed to have been bewitched into an immobility perfect and final. Nothing moved on the river but the eight paddles that rose flashing regularly, dipped together with a single splash…
Somewhere deep in the jungles, in a boat anchored on a lagoon, a man listens to the doomed love story of his friend and his dying lover. In an apple orchard, a philosopher tries hard to decipher the codes of love, little realizing that he is ruining his own chances. With stories from writers like O. Henry, Joseph Conrad, Guy de Maupassant, Anton Chekov and others, this collection brings alive the many shades of love, from the heartbreaking to the joyous.

AUTHOR OF THE BOOK
Ruskin Bond has been writing for over sixty years, and now has over 120 titles in print—novels, collections of short stories, poetry, essays, anthologies and books for children. His first novel, The Room on the Roof, received the prestigious John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1957. He has also received the Padma Shri (1999), the Padma Bhushan (2014) and two awards from Sahitya Akademi—one for his short stories and another for his writings for children. In 2012, the Delhi government gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Born in 1934, Ruskin Bond grew up in Jamnagar, Shimla, New Delhi and Dehradun. Apart from three years in the UK, he has spent all his life in India, and now lives in Mussoorie with his adopted family.

Specification

• Product Code : BK8715
• Publisher : Rupa Publications India
• Edition : February 1, 2017
• Pages : 152
• Weight : 630 gm.
• Size : 5.1 x 0.4 x 7.8 inches
• Binding : Paperback
• Author : Ruskin Bond
• Language : English
• ISBN-10: 8129145278
  ISBN-13: 978-8129145277
  
  

Description

As a novelist and storyteller, I have always drawn upon my memories of places that I have known and lived in over the years. More than most writers, perhaps, I find myself drawing inspiration from the past—my childhood, adolescence, youth, early manhood… The stories and the poems float in through my window, float in from the magic mountains, and the words appear on the page without much effort on my part.

Ruskin Bond has been writing for over sixty years, in the course of which he has come to be known for his simple and witty writing style. These twenty-five stories form a delightful collection of some of his non-fiction sketches, his interaction with the natural world, and his life in small towns that has given him some of his biggest stories.

Bond’s journey as a writer has been a remarkable one and these stories show the master storyteller at his very best.

AUTHOR OF THE BOOK

Ruskin Bond has been writing for over sixty years, and now has over 120 titles in print—novels, collections of short stories, poetry, essays, anthologies and books for children. His first novel, The Room on the Roof, received the prestigious John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1957. He has also received the Padma Shri (1999), the Padma Bhushan (2014) and two awards from Sahitya Akademi—one for his short stories and another for his writings for children. In 2012, the Delhi government gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Born in 1934, Ruskin Bond grew up in Jamnagar, Shimla, New Delhi and Dehradun. Apart from three years in the UK, he has spent all his life in India, and now lives in Mussoorie with his adopted family.

Specification

• Product Code : BK8710
• Publisher : Rupa Publications India
• Edition : June 14, 2017
• Pages : 126
• Weight : 100 gm.
• Size : 4.9 x 0.3 x 7.6 inches
• Binding : Paperback
• Author : Ruskin Bond
• Language : English
• ISBN-10: 8129147408
  ISBN-13: 978-8129147400

 

Description

Once I saw her, leaning over the balcony railing. I stopped the taxi and waved to her. She waved back, smiling like the sun breaking through clouds.
Suffused with warmth and passion, the stories in Falling in Love Again showcase the myriad variations of romantic love—fleeting, intimate, joyous, heartbreaking. Featuring classic stories by Ruskin Bond, such as ‘The Eyes Have It’ and ‘The Girl from Copenhagen’, this stirring collection captures the range of feelings that are indubitably part of the infinite spectrum of love.

AUTHOR OF THE BOOK
Ruskin Bond has been writing for over sixty years, and has now over 120 titles in print—novels, collections of stories, poetry, essays, anthologies and books for children. His first novel, The Room on the Roof, received the prestigious John Llewellyn Rhys award in 1957. He has also received the Padma Shri, and two awards from the Sahitya Akademi—one for his short stories and another for his writings for children. In 2012, the Delhi government gave him its Lifetime Achievement award.
Born in 1934, Ruskin Bond grew up in Jamnagar, Shimla, New Delhi and Dehradun. Apart from three years in the UK, he has spent all his life in India, and now lives in Mussoorie with his adopted family.
A shy person, Ruskin says he likes being a writer because ‘When I’m writing there’s nobody watching me. Today, it’s hard to find a profession where you’re not being watched!’

Specification

• Product Code : BK8691
• Publisher : Rupa Publications India
• Edition : November 1, 2014
• Pages : 208
• Weight : 190 gm.
• Size : 5.1 x 0.5 x 7.8 inches
• Binding : Paperback
• Author : Ruskin Bond
• Language : English
• ISBN-10: 8129120437
  ISBN-13: 978-8129120434

Description

'Although the India of Kim is no more, and the Grand Trunk Road is now a procession of trucks instead of a slow-moving caravan of horses and camels, India is still a country in which people are easily lost and quickly forgotten.

Did you know that Delhi was half its present size in the 1940s and 50s? Can you imagine a Dehradun with lush greenery, with hardly any commercial places? Do you remember steam engines or have you ever sat in a train pulled by one?

This book takes you back in time as Ruskin Bond relives his memories in timeless classics like 'Summertime in Old Delhi, 'Bhabijis House, My Fathers Trees in Dehra, creating as only he can, vignettes imbued with nostalgia. Add to these the punch of stories like 'A Station for Scandal, the thrill of 'Picnic at Fox-Burn and the surprise twist of 'The Eyes have It—and you have a story for every mood!

This collection of seventeen stories showcases Bond at his story-telling best.

About the Author: Ruskin Bond

Ruskin Bond has been writing for over sixty years, and now has over 120 titles in print—novels, collections of short stories, poetry, essays, anthologies and books for children. His first novel, The Room on the Roof, received the prestigious John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1957. He has also received the Padma Shri (1999), the Padma Bhushan (2014) and two awards from Sahitya Akademi—one for his short stories and another for his writings for children. In 2012, the Delhi government gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award. Born in 1934, Ruskin Bond grew up in Jamnagar, Shimla, New Delhi and Dehradun. Apart from three years in the UK, he has spent all his life in India, and now lives in Mussoorie with his adopted family.

Specification

• Product Code : BK8686
• Publisher : Rupa Publications India
• Edition : October 20, 2017
• Pages : 126
• Weight : 100 gm.
• Size : 5.9 x 0.9 x 8.3 inches
• Binding : October 20, 2017
• Author : Ruskin Bond
• Language : English
• ISBN-10: 8129149184
  ISBN-13: 978-8129149183

Description

"‘On the morning of 19 September, while Miss Mountstephen was still away, Miss Garnett-Orme was found dead in her bed. The door was locked from the inside. On her bedside table was a glass. She was positioned on the bed as though laid out by a nurse or undertaker.’ From ‘A Mussoorie Mystery’ by Ruskin Bond.

There are very few readers who don’t get a feeling of satisfaction from reading a good short story. It is the ending to a story that can make the reader sit up and think about it—some can be good, some twisted and some absolutely anticlimactic! Read about a couple who set out to get the perfect gift for each other and the surprising twist in the end in ‘The Gift of the Magi’; a robotic dancing partner, which creates more menace than a human partner ever can in ‘The Dancing Partner’; and Bond’s own telling of a mystery set in Mussoorie, which caught the fancy of none other than Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes; and many more such stories. Selected and edited by Ruskin Bond, this collection is abound with several fantastic, scary, surprising and humorous stories.

AUTHOR OF THE BOOK

Ruskin Bond has been writing for over sixty years, and now has over 120 titles in print—novels, collections of short stories, poetry, essays, anthologies and books for children. His first novel, The Room on the Roof, received the prestigious John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1957. He has also received the Padma Shri (1999), the Padma Bhushan (2014) and two awards from Sahitya Akademi—one for his short stories and another for his writings for children. In 2012, the Delhi government gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award. Born in 1934, Ruskin Bond grew up in Jamnagar, Shimla, New Delhi and Dehradun. Apart from three years in the UK, he has spent all his life in India, and now lives in Mussoorie with his adopted family."

Specification

• Product Code : BK8664
• Publisher : Rupa Publications India
• Edition : April 10, 2017
• Pages : 142
• Weight : 120 gm.
• Size : 5.9 x 0.3 x 8.3 inches
• Cover : Paperback
• Author : Ruskin Bond
• Language : English
• ISBN-10: 8129135825
  ISBN-13: 978-8129135827

Description

"Adapted as a hit film, this book is the fourth in Bhagat’s list of novels and also the fourth one to be adapted as a movie. This fun-filled love story that gets complicated when the question of marriage comes up, is a loose adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s own marriage.

This is a story of a love affair between two IIM students hailing from two different states, Punjab and Tamil Nadu. Miles apart in distance and custom, Krish and Ananya’s love blossoms within the confines of their college walls. But with the end of college and beginning of a career, the question of marriage does not stand far away.

They embark on a journey of convincing their parents for the marriage. But the persuasion takes a lot more than just a few words. The journey that the couple takes from being romantically involved to getting married is full of twists and turns. This is more because, in India, it is easy to fall in love but tricky to convert that love into a love marriage.

The book details the quintessential Indian parents, the way marriages generally work in India and the two varied cultures beautifully; it also goes on to show that far beyond religion and creed, love keeps fighting for its place.

About the Author

Chetan Bhagat is an Indian author, columnist and screenwriter, who is popularly known for his English-language novels, mostly based on the lives of young urban middle class Indians. Bhagat's novels have sold over seven million copies and in 2008, The New York Times quoted Bhagat as ""the biggest selling English language novelist in India’s history."

Specification

• Product Code : BK8661
• Publisher : Rupa Publications India
  
• Edition : 1 January 2014
• Pages : 269
• Weight : 200 gm
• Size : 7.6 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Binding : Paperback
• Author : CHETAN BHAGAT
• Language : English
• ISBN-10: 8129135523
  ISBN-13: 978-8129135520

It was death at first sight . . . Miss Ripley-Bean was sitting on a bench beneath the deodars, having a quiet moment to herself, when suddenly two shadows, larger than life, appeared on the outside wall; they were struggling with each other. Only afterwards, when a dead body was discovered, did Miss Ripley-Bean realize she had witnessed a murder – and that the murderer had seen her . . . In this marvelous collection of brand-new stories set in the Mussoorie of a bygone era, Ruskin Bond recounts the deliciously sinister cases of a murdered priest, an adulterous couple, a man who is born evil, and the body in the box bed; not to forget the strange happenings involving the arsenic in the post, the strychnine in the cognac, a mysterious black dog, and the Daryaganj strangler. As the elderly Miss Ripley-Bean, her Tibetan terrier Fluff, her good friend Mr Lobo, the hotel pianist, and Nandu, the owner of the Royal, mull over the curious murders, the reader will be enthralled and delighted – until the murderer is finally revealed.

Fourteen-year-old Zoon Razdan is witty, intelligent and deeply perceptive. She also has a deep connection with magic. She was born into it. The house that she lives in is fantastical—life thrums through its wooden walls—and she can talk to everything in it, from the armchair and the fireplace to the books, pipes and portraits! But Zoon doesn’t know that her beloved house once contained a terrible force of darkness that was accidentally let out by one of its previous owners. And when the darkness returns, more powerful and malevolent than ever, it is up to her to take her rightful place as the Guardian of the house, and subsequently, Kashmir.

Everything that you’ve always loved about Ruskin Bond is back. His mesmerizing descriptions of nature and his wonderful way with words—this is Ruskin Bond at his finest. Read on as Rusty tells the story of his grandfather’s relationship with the trees around him, who’s convinced that they love him back with as much tenderness as he loves them.

A masaledaar mix of fact and fiction, action and emotion, drama and passion—these strange, funny, intriguing tales from small-town Uttar Pradesh have been passed orally from one generation to the next. They are likely to make one exclaim, ‘This couldn’t have happened!’ even as the narrators swear they are nothing but pure fact. The bizarre chronicle of a lazy daughter-in-law, the court clerk who loved eating chaat, two cousins inseparable even in death, a blind teacher who fell in love with a woman with beautiful eyes and other wild tales from Bareilly, Lucknow, Hapur, Badaun, Sapnawat and Pilibhit, places big and small, in that fascinating part of India called Uttar Pradesh.

Skims the murky world of dispossessed youth while sporting a spare, swift style’—The Hindu Sathi is a young soda-seller in a run-down cinema hall in a small town. Ill-paid and always weary, he finds relief from everyday tedium in marijuana and his friends—vulnerable, desperate young men who work around the movie hall. An intense and tender friendship with one of the men sustains Sathi, until a train of events casts the meagre certainties of his days and nights into disarray. Slick, visceral and startlingly inventive, Current Show unfolds in a manner that simulates rapid cinematic cuts. Murugan’s keen eye and crackling prose plumb the dark underbelly of small-town life, bringing Sathi’s world and entanglements thrillingly to life.

The Sensualist is the story of a man enslaved by his libido and spiraling towards self-destruction. Gripping, erotic, even brutal, the book explores the demons that its protagonist must grapple with before he is able to come to terms with himself. In this fascinating account of the pleasures and perils that attend a young man's coming of age, Ruskin Bond displays his felicity in exploring the dark aspects of the human psyche. Bold and powerful, The Sensualist is a compelling read.

One of the outstanding storytellers in contemporary Indian writing'-Forbes India Uprooted from a bustling city, the thirteen-year-old protagonist of The Small-town Sea is replanted in his father's home town where he struggles to cope with his new life. He reluctantly makes friends with Bilal, a boy who lives in the orphanage run by the local mosque. Together, they embark on clandestine adventures while his ailing father-whose last wish is to die listening to the sea he has grown up by and written books about-rediscovers people from his childhood by accident. But his father's death unsettles the boy's life again, and he finds himself grappling with altogether unexpected challenges. Lyrical and haunting, sharply funny and achingly sad, The Small-town Sea is a masterful tale of love, friendship and family from one of our most compelling storytellers.

H.H. is the spoilt, selfish, beautiful widow of the Maharaja of Mastipur. She lives with her dogs and her caretaker, Hans, in an enormous old house in Mussoorie, taking lovers and discarding them, drinking too much and fending off her reckless sons who are waiting hungrily for their inheritance. The seasons come and go, hotels burn down, cinemas shut shop and people leave the hill station never to return, but H.H. remains constant and indomitable. Observing her antics, often with disapproval, is her old friend Ruskin, who can never quite cut himself off from her. Melancholic, wry and full of charm, Maharani is a delightful novella about love, death and friendship.

"You're asking me to hold your hand. And now you're turning away from me. You are saying something but I can't hear you. It's too windy. You're crying now. Now you're smiling. I'm done. I love you . . .'

It's been two years since Raghu left his first love, Brahmi, on the edge of the roof one fateful night. He couldn't save her; he couldn't be with her. Having lost everything, Raghu now wants to stay hidden from the world.
However, the annoyingly persistent Advaita finds his elusiveness very attractive. And the more he ignores her, the more she's drawn to him till she bulldozes her way into an unlikely friendship.
What attracts at first, begins to grate. Advaita can't help but want to know what Raghu has left behind, what he's hiding, and who broke his heart. She wants to love him back to life, but for that she needs to know what wrecked him in the first place.
After all, the antidote to heartache is love."

How do you know it’s love and not just another relationship?Joy never did. Relationships have never been his cup of tea. Even when he and Manika are attracted to each other, Joy gets into another relationship thinking she is ‘the one’. And when Joy’s girl walks out on him and he falls into a deep depression it is Manika who comes back into his life and nurses him to health. This, when she is already in a relationship.It’s time for Joy to act. Will he realize her importance in his life and get Manika back? Or is it already too late?Oh Yes, I’m Single! is a journey of heartbreaks, love, laughter and tears.

WILL IT BE MONEY OR LOVE? For Abhijeet, Saurav, Shruti, Garima life is about to change. They have the most sought after jobs in the country—jobs that will pay for designer clothes, shoes, watches, holidays in foreign locations . . . all the things they’ve ever wanted. But then, is life ever perfect?Things begin to get tough from day one as they begin to work under bosses who are straight out of hell, who pile them with work, push them for more and make their lives miserable.Things go from bad to worse as they fall in love and sleep around with all the wrong people. Then when recession affects the company, their bond begins to strain. Till one day, the very reason that got them together tears them apart: Money.

"Hate, is a four letter word.
So is love.
And sometimes, people can't tell the difference...
Dhurv and Aranya spend a good part of their lives trying to figure out why they want to destroy each other, why they hurt each other so deeply. And, why they can't stay away from each other.
The answer is just as difficult each time because all they've wanted is to do the worst, most miserable things to one another.
Yet there is something that tells them: THIS IS NOT IT.
If you want to know the answer to it all, read the book."

Let love be your guide…All Debashish cares about is getting laid. His relationships are mostly short lived and his break-ups messy until he falls in love with the beautiful and mysterious Avantika. When she returns his feelings, he is thrilled. However, his joy is short-lived as Avantika walks out of the relationship. A brokenhearted Debashish plunges into depression and his life takes a dizzying downward spiral. He finds himself without a job, friends, or a lover. Loneliness strikes him hard. That is when his friend Amit comes to his rescue and they start putting the pieces of his life back together. Things begin to look up, but Debashish is still pining for Avantika. Will she come back and make his life whole again, or will he continue to pay for his mistakes?

Rusty returns to his beloved hills, never to leave again Rusty Comes Home is the fifth and final volume in Puffin's complete collection of Ruskin Bond's ever-popular Rusty stories. A lonely and sensitive boy who lost his father early, Rusty spent his childhood in boarding schools and with relatives in Dehra. While still a teenager, he ran away from his foster home and had myriad adventures before landing up in London with the ambition of becoming a writer. This book chronicles Rusty's exploits after his return from London, as he explores Delhi, Dehra and the small, dusty town of Shahganj before settling down in Mussoorie, making his living as a writer, and revelling in the hills that have always fascinated him. Rusty Comes Home contains some captivating stories about Rusty's friends and fleeting acquaintances, about human nature and the supernatural. Among his friends in Shahganj are Ketan, a victim of the Partition and prone to paralytic fits; Madhu, a child whose life is tragically cut short, but not before she leaves an indelible impression on Rusty; and Suresh, a disabled child with whom Rusty strikes up a close bond. In Dehra he meets up with his genial Uncle Bill, who makes it his habit to poison people with arsenic; the incredible Jimmy, a jinn who can extend his arms at will to infinite lengths; and Miss Pettibone, the oldest resident of Dehra, who enthralls him with riveting stories from the town's past. Then there is the unnamed basket-selling girl he meets by chance on the Deoli railway platform and can never forget; and Binya, a young and vivacious widow, who floats into his life on the strains of a song. Full of charming and idiosyncratic characters, these stories of love, loss and adventure will appeal to young readers of all ages.

"A timeless selection of writings from India's best-loved author

I know the world's a crowded place,
And elephants do take up space,
But if it makes a difference, Lord,
I'd gladly share my room and board.
A baby elephant would do...
But, if he brings his mother too,
There's Dad's garage. He wouldn't mind.
To elephants, he's more than kind.
But I wonder what my Mum would say
If their aunts and uncles came to stay!

Ruskin Bond has regaled generations of readers for decades. This delightful collection of poetry, prose and non-fiction brings together some of his best work in a single volume. Sumptuously illustrated, Uncles, Aunts and Elephants is a book to treasure for all times."

Set in Shimla, The Red Tin Roof evokes with rare delicacy and precision the interplay of seasons, nature and people, while it broodingly tells the story of a young girl growing into adolescence, in the company mostly of older women but also of a younger brother who trails her. In this exploration of an inner world, Nirmal Verma does not so much as tell a story as reminisce. Memory is the seed of his story.

A superb collection of stories from a modern Indian master! One of the most versatile and innovative among contemporary Tamil writers, Sundara Ramaswamy’s wrote short stories in two phases : between 1951 and 1966, and then, after a long gap, in the 1970s. his early stories, focusing on ordinary people leading ordinary lives and are full of gems by way of characterization: the policeman and the priest of the Nadi Krishna temple in ‘Prasadam’, and Varadan and Joswin in ‘True Love’ remain unforgettable, in spite of their pedestrian lives. In the later stories—‘Intoxication’(1973), ‘Waves’(1976)—clouded by the aftermath of the Bangladesh war and the Emergency, the plots turn darker and more complex. Surprising us with their odd twists and turns, raising uncomfortable questions, and yet touched by a fine sense of humour and humanity, the stories in this collection belong with the best in the genre.

Hats and Doctors offers English readers the opportunity to savour, for the first time, the work of Upendranath Ashk, one of Hindi literature’s best-known authors. The stories in this collection often display a wry sense of humour, such as ‘The Dal Eaters’ in which a family of cheapskates journeys to Kashmir. While Ashk’s satirical eye is employed to great effect in ‘The Cartoon Hero’, where a hapless traveller encounters a petty politician on a train, his talent for capturing human frailties is amply evident in ‘Furlough’ and ‘In the Insane Asylum’. Exhibiting a lightness of touch and a deep engagement with the human condition, these stories come alive in Daisy Rockwell’s delightful translation.