In the Preface to his book, A Gathering of Friends, Ruskin Bond mentions his critics, the ones who have sometimes felt that his stories are less stories, more character sketches, for want of a plot. In his inimitable style, with gentle humour, he points out, that life doesn’t come with a plot.
One can imagine him, glint in his eyes from the witticism, continuing tell the everyday tales of life, from the observable and plausible, to the fantastical. Bond has been an intrepid chronicler of life in the slow lane. At the ripe old age of 81, he has selected some of his favourite works in a slim volume. For readers familiar with Bond’s writing, it will indeed seem like a gathering of old friends, chatting away in a cosy house in the Himalayan hills in soft light, looking out at the evening chill with a warming drink in hand. The young boy Rusty breaks free of parental disapproval to find freedom and exhilaration after a rambunctious morning spent playing Holi with local friends.