"Listen to the night
wind in the trees,
Listen to the summer grass singing;
Listen to the time that's tripping by,
And the dawn dew falling.
Listen to the moon as it climbs the sky,
Listen to the pebbles humming;
Listen to the mist in the trembling leaves;
And the silence calling."
Yes, I am listening to the silence while reading these words.
There was night wind before as there was the moon and the grass. But all these
I took for granted. Ruskin Bond turned me into an observant person. Everything
around me is like a song for me now; sometimes a happy song and sometimes a sad
song.
I was never a poetry person. I hardly enjoyed poetry in my
course books, so reading poems for pleasure never crossed my mind. While
reading some books by Ruskin Sir (Rain in the Mountains, Lamp is Lit etc.), I came across occasional poems. Reading
those little pieces of verse never appeared hard. Those were like reading about
Ruskin Bond's love for Nature and the greatness in the simplicity of his
surroundings. Those little verses changed my perception of poetry. But still, I
was not very much in love with verse. Back in May 2020, while submitting my
entry for the birthday wish contest on Ruskin Bond's birthday, organised by
Cambridge Book Depot, I ended up writing a very long poem. I just wrote my heart,
but I never knew I could write in the form of verse. I was confused about its
being grammatically or poetically correct. But then there is a very beautiful
word, 'Poetic License'. So, this license inculcated confidence in me. That
confidence was boosted when Mr Bond selected my piece of verse among other
winners. Since then, my confidence in understanding poetry has increased, and
now I enjoy poetry by heart.
Besides reading an occasional poem in Ruskin Bond's books, I
wanted to read every piece of verse he has produced during his long and
wonderful career as an author. So what better choice than this book? The cover
mesmerized me. The contents page made my eyes wide open with the beautiful
titles and themes of poems. And the poems made me keep away all other books and
other chores. Reading these pieces of verse was like floating in the music of a
mesmerising magical world, where all the tunes are made up of silence. I tried
hard to write some of my favourite titles here but failed drastically. All the
poems have some special kind of beauty and joy in reading that picking one
favourite among others is almost an impossible task. The poems take you on a
journey through every emotion you can name. There's the celebration of love,
loss, innocence, nostalgia, friendship, humour, solitude and every other colour
of life. This book is a treasured gem of my Ruskin Bond books corner.
-Ekta Kubba
Comments
Post a Comment