Book Review #96: A Song of Many Rivers By Ruskin Bond

Title: A Song of Many Rivers

Author: Ruskin Bond

Publishers: Rupa Publications India

Pages: 132 (Paperback)

Genre: Short Stories

Source: Advanced review copy from Publisher

Ruskin Bond’s books are always a treasure of experiences. The little amusements of life is captured luminously by the author. Ruskin Bond is able to strike a chord with his readers with another book that speaks about the vast range of North Eastern culture, atmosphere, rivers, forests, mountains and the mighty Himalayas of India. This book is not a regular Ruskin Bond’s ghost stories collection. This book covers the aspect beyond his regular flavor. This book contains the vivid details of rivers, mountains, forests, rains, etc…

A Song of Many Rivers is the first short travelogue of the author where he spent some quality time travelling the important rivers and shrines in the Northern India. This particular short story captures the vivid niceties of the rivers like Alakananda, Ganga, Bhagirathi, Yamuna, Jamuna, Suswa, Rudraprayaga, Nandaprayag, and such several places. Author not only explains the exquisiteness and tranquility of these rivers, but also includes the historical background of these important rivers. Especially, the story of the river Bhagirathi and how it merges with the river Ganga and what was the story behind it.

Further reading into the book, we get to read few more, yet interesting stories like the Wilson’s Bridge, From the Pool to the Glacier, Ganga Takes it All, Angry River and so on.

Wilson’s Bridge is an interesting tale narrated by the author when he visited the village called Harsil, situated near the banks of river Bhagirathi on the way towards the Hindu piligrimage, Gangotri in Uttarakashi. The story revolves around a person called Wilson and his wife Gulabi. The local folklore has believed that, Gulabi, the wife of Wilson has committed suicide by jumping off the bridge that Wilson has constructed many years ago, citing the reason that Wilson is cheating on her by having an illicit relationship with another woman. The interesting part is, still people would see Gulabi at night near the bridge as a ghost jumping into the river sometimes.  Author also narrates his own experience of seeing this woman. The tales ends on a tragic note and we witness a young wife of a person committing suicide that toured along with the author and his team.

From the Pool to the Glacier is the tale of author’s childhood. He along with his two other friends discovers a pool near his house. They feel elated by the sight of it, as they thought they were the first to discover this trail of water. So, it happened one day that, they all decide to visit a glacier in Himalayas. They took the help of a Sherpa boy called Bisnu. They trek their way towards the glacier and had the best experience of their lifetime. The narration of the vast beauty of the Himalayas should be savored by reading this story.

The most interesting story in the book is the Angry River. This is the story of a girl called Sita that lives on an island along with her Grandfather and Grandmother. They have little livestock and few hen birds to support their daily breadwinning. It so happened one day, when Sita’s grandmother fell ill and had to rush to the hospital down the hill. Her grandfather decides to take his wife to the hospital and warned Sita that a possible flood might happen as it was raining heavily. As expected, the same night when Sita’s grandfather left for the hospital, there was heavy downpour and the island village started to submerge in the torrential rain. Sita decides to follow the instructions given to her by her grandfather. First, she climbs rooftop to avoid the flood. When the water reached the roof level, she climbs on to a Peepal tree, and hoped for the best. As it was destined for the worst, the tree also started to bend towards the water. As a miracle, Sita was saved by a boy called Krishan. Soon after all the floods have subsided and she reconciled with her grandfather, she longed to see this boy and kept looking at the Flute that boy has given to her as a gift.

Overall the book expresses some of the mundane life aspects in a great lucid way. There is no denying that, the reader will enjoy reading such stories. I would definitely recommend it to others to read it at least once.

My Rating:

3/5

Note: This book was given to me by the Publishers in exchange for an unbiased review.