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The wonder of childhood shines through Ruskin Bond's latest book

Children as well as grown-ups can find echoes of their own thoughts and feelings in the author Ruskin Bond's latest book.

''Once you have lived with mountains, under the benedictory pines and deodars, near stars and a brighter moon... You will return, you will come back to touch the trees and grass, and climb once more the windswept mountain pass,'' says Bond in a poem titled Living with Mountains in A Bond with the Mountains.

This poem sums up the feelings behind Bond's return to Dehra Dun and Mussoorie in the 1950s after having decided not to live in big cities. His return to the places where he lived as a child marked the beginning of the journey which has today brought him to the pinnacle of literary glory.

''I like to think that I have become a part of these mountains and that, by living here for so long, I am able to claim a relationship with the trees and wild flowers, and even the rocks that are an integral part of them,'' Bond writes in Mother Hill which records his intense feelings for the mountains. ''To me, as a writer, mountains have been kind. They were kind from the beginning, when I left a job in Delhi and rented a small cottage on the outskirts of the hill station (Mussorie),'' he says.

The author's love for nature makes him look at it as his close friend. Talking about a horse-chestnut tree in My Tall Green Friends, he says, ''The tree itself is a friendly one, especially in summer when it is in full leaf. The least breath of wind makes the leaves break into conversation and their rustle is a cheerful sound, unlike the sad notes of pine trees in the wind.''

Concluding the story, Bond tells us that not only is he aware of the presence of nature but nature too regards him as a friend. ''Great trees of the mountains, they know me well. They know my face in the window, they see me watching them, watching them grow listening to their secrets, bowing my head before their outstretched arms and seeking their benediction.''

The description of British spinster Mise Mackenzie in the story titled A Bouquet of Love brings to mind the lifestyle adopted by many Europeans who settled in Mussoorie. Her love for gardening and cats and her fondness for the hill children are all too familiar especially to readers who have lived in the hills.

The wonder of childhood shines through all the stories and poems in the collection. A New Flowers, the first story, reveals the thrill of a nine-year-old girl who discovers a ''single butter yellow blossom like a bright star against the drab winter grass''.

All in all, A Bond with the Mountains is quintessentially Bond and a welcome addition to the wealth of his writings about Doon and Mussoorie.

UNI

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