Rain in the Mountains

It is a collection of stories, snippets, essays and poems penned by the writer after having lived in many hamlets across the mountains in the Himalayas. Through his subtle, simple and lucid writing, the author beautifully brings alive many natural sights and sounds that evoke the essence of natural mountain life.

Both prose and poetry in the book are centred around nature with all the purity that it holds. Rain in the Mountains: Notes from the Himalayas touches a raw nerve for an urban dweller when it describes the beauty of mountain wilderness, surrounded by chirping birds, squirrels, a blue sky with moving clouds casting light and shade shadows. The book can be a good companion for contemplation and quiet reading.

It introduces the readers with an innocent form of writing, which uses simplicity in words to describe some of the routine but beautiful things around us. The book has stories like Once Upon a Mountain Time and records the moods and likings of the writer with reflective notes like Sounds I Like to Hear, Sounds of the Sea, How Far Is the River and After the Monsoon.

Born in 1934, Ruskin Bond, of British descent, is one of India’s most popular English author, especially of children’s literature. Born in Kasauli, Bond went to school in Shimla and has worked as a freelance writer from Mussoorie, where he has come to live since 1963. He was conferred the Sahitya Academy Award in 1992 , a Padma Shri in 1999 and a Padma Bhushan in 2014. He has written many novels and short stories, which include Ghost Stories From The Raj, A Tiger in the House, The Room on the Roof, A Flight of Pigeons, The Blue Umbrella and others.