This collection by Ruskin Bond has stories that are mostly autobiographical, based on the theme of nature. In these heartwarming stories, Bond talks of the various elements of nature as if they are members of his family. He also endows the flora and fauna that he encounters with distinct personalities, and himself recedes into the background as a silent observer.
From the mountains to the trees, from the birds that fly to his cottage, bringing a whiff of the faraway forests they come from, to the winding paths that lead to charming gardens, Petals on the Ganga will take you to nooks and corners, opening up scenes of myriad beauty.
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 Landour, Mussoorie, with his adopted family.
I never cease to wonder at the tenacity of water-its ability to make its way through various strata of rock, zigzagging, backtracking, finding space, cunningly discovering faults and fissures in the mountain, and sometimes travelling underground for great distances before emerging into the open. Of course, there's no stopping water. For no matter how tiny that little trickle, it has to go somewhere!
Such streams are luxuries left only to the mountains now. And I make sure to make most of this luxury while it's still available to some of us. It was while I was living in England in the jostle and drizzle of London, that I remembered the Himalayas at their most vivid. I had grown up amongst those great blue and brown mountains, they had nourished my blood, and though I was separated from them by thousands of miles of ocean, plain and desert, I could not forget them. It is always the same with mountains. Once you have lived with them for py length of time, you belong to them.
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