Landour Days

The feeling of space- limitless space- can only be experienced by living in the mountains.

Ruskin Bond's Landour Days is the perfect antidote to the restlessness and boredom brought about by the seemingly unending confinement to our homes. A collection of his journal excerpts, it begins from the month of April and ends in March, encapsulating an entire year's worth of ruminations and musings in the hills, replete with mellifluous descriptions of Landour's seasonal changes, and the intrinsic beauty of the natural world.

Landour is conjured up in such a vibrant manner as Bond writes winding passages of the cicadas that sing at night, the poppies that are sprinkled over the hills, the morning dew that envelopes the sleepy town, and the susurration of the deodar trees. The prose, to me, is truly sublimely composed, and perfectly exhibits Bond's steadfast love for the mountains.

The novel is inclusive of Bond's personal life, rife with anecdotes of his childhood, his present circumstances and beautiful evocations of his experiences having made India his home.

The book is frequented with literary references, which make for a great reading experience as one gets a peek into what kind of writers and characters may have possibly influenced Bond in some way, that is if the reader themselves can keep up with being inundated with these names. History also finds itself woven into the book, as there are slithers of commentary on Landour's and on a larger scale, India's history.

Perhaps my favorite bit of the book is Bond's reflections on India's vast railway network, and the identities attached to it: "There is nothing like an Indian railway station anywhere else in the world. We are not a melting pot of races and religions, we are a mosaic of all these things. A mosaic that is best observed from the trains that pull the glittering pieces together."

An afternoon spent with this book featuring Bond's lucid and charming evocation of the wistfulness of the mountains will indeed be enough to satiate any reader's appetite, and will provide a much-needed portal into his cosy world nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas!