I wish this book never
came to an end. The island and its very few inhabitants mesmerized me. The
river, 'it was a good river, deep and strong,
beginning in the mountains and ending in the sea' was part of the island. And there was a tree.
It was the only tree there, the fifty years old peepul tree, that had sprung up
to give shade and shelter to the small family of Sita, her grandparents, their
three goats, and a few hens. Fighting for the necessities and fighting against
the odds of nature is perhaps the essence of the book, but the thing that kept
me attached to the book, or rather made me a part of the island, was its
aloofness; it's being away from the crowd and noise and modernity. It's the
bare nature, nature in its very pure form. I always yearn for this kind of
silence and serenity, where you are living with nature. With a minimum of
needs, your attention is only towards the present, keeping you fed and doing
your daily chores. The future remains the future; you are not worried about
that. You don't need to go to school (this is the most important one for me ).
Some might say it is impractical thinking. But the beauty of the island made me
think so. It always makes me think so. Ruskin Bond's stories make me think so.
I feel delighted with flute sounds. I feel delighted when Binya of 'The Blue Umbrella' keeps running after her cattle, and she is the
most satisfied girl, in this world, with a blue umbrella in her hands. I feel
delighted when Sita, in this story, wants to share secrets, 'though
there were no special secrets in her life, she made up a few because it was fun
to have them.' I
feel delighted when Sita shares her secrets with her rag doll Mumta. That's the
reason I liked this kind of life, the life away from the noises and crowds of
towns and cities.
On the surface, the story seems to be about the flooding of the
island and its nearby villages, and how some people survived this flood. But
deeply, it tells the struggle of people residing in these kinds of areas where
the bare necessities of life are hard to earn and present challenges to keeping
life moving. And it tells the courage of these people, who always start afresh
despite all these extreme natural calamities.
The story also shows, how impertinent nature can be. As Sita
said, "Sometimes the river is angry, and
sometimes it is kind." And
quoting Kishan, "We are part of the river. We
cannot live without it." This
is the spirit of these people with minimal necessities. They accept their
surroundings and never give up.
Sita's struggle in keeping herself alive during floods, and
keeping her spirits up is a thing to cherish. She felt cheerful in the presence
of a crow when nobody was there to accompany her during this most difficult
time of her life. 'Better to have a crow for the company
than no one at all.'
A beautiful turn of events presented the character of Kishan,
the one who 'looked blue in the moonlight, the color
of the young god Krishna.' He
came as a savior. Sita felt safe in his company because 'he
was different, in a way she couldn't explain to herself....'
Amidst the horrors of the flood, Kishan is playing the flute,
Sita is sleeping in a boat and dreaming of god and a white bird, wild animals
are running close to them but not hurting them, they are savoring mangoes, 'the
nectar of the gods!' What
bliss! Only Ruskin Bond can write this beautiful piece of nature's extremities.
I love this book.
-Ekta Kubba
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