The Room on the Roof- Ruskin Bond !! A Journey with Rusty!!

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Over the past few months, I have not been reading and writing properly. When I say properly, I actually mean my diet of reading, that fills me. That heals the noise within me. And the consequence has turned out to be, of course, not so good. Binge watching has actually slaved me.

Okay- enough of complaints. At the back of my mind, I hate complaining but somehow that’s how my ego - little self is, complaining, this is what it does. 

binge-watching

So, I decided today that I am going to sit back, turn my phone off, and read something light, something light and fulfilling. 

And guess what? Like always, I go back to Ruskin Bond. Ruskin Bond’s first novel- The Room on the Roof. 

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As Ruskin Bond says- its a novel about adolescence by an adolescence, longing for love and family, written out of loneliness.

Well! I don’t know my reason to reach out to this novel because i am no longer an adolescent, and i am far far away from the concept of growing a family tree out of love or whatever it is. But right now, one thing is certain- I do feel lonely, well, most of the times, because, i am always distracted and have multiple divided centers within. 

So, here, I go. Under the morning light & blue sky, fresh air, with the book in my hand and the music of chirpings birds:- well, I think that’s enough to fill in the vacancy that is created out of this word- “Loneliness”. 

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To calm down my distractions, to make me feel hungry, to make me breathe oxygen, to drench myself in morning light. 

A time with ME and The Room on the Roof!!

For a brief moment of time, i would like to imagine this boy as me.

And, to my surprise, the magic of Bond did happen. The change that Bond takes you into via his story.

A lonely, shy boy raised by his legal guardian who is way too strict to Rusty but Rusty, accidently meet some friends and  happened to discover his inner strength that fought his guardian for his freedom and well, a new life begins for Rusty.

Fearful and afraid of the risks of leaving his chained home, of fears that cry for security and living, he eventually landed up getting a job with the help of his friend Somi, that got him a nice room on the roof, with the sky above and bougainvillea plant to his window side.

“A room where you can write poetry and create music”, and of course, fall in love too. Well,  Love with the life around.

And Rusty does.

Travelling through the pages with Ruskin Bond, with his vivid imagery of hills, valleys, cherry blossoms, rainbow colors, varied colors of spring and above all, his outings and adventures to the bazaar with his adorable friends is all i would have needed to fill myself with.

Though not always, but certainly, yes,  at this moment.

Moments where you watch the flight of pigeons high in the sky, and when suddenly, a butterfly out of nowhere comes and flutters leading you to blink your eyes too. A light breeze and the clouds take over all the sky above and its raining. 

Everything here is changing, - a moment before, it was sunlight and now its the rain.

A few hours before, i was all messed up, but now, i am in my mind. How surreal ? 

I would copy here a dialogue from the movie- Notting hill(1999 film) when the british bookseller met the American actress for the first time and he bid her bye with this dialogue-  “Surreal but nice“.

So, yeah- how i met with the Room on the Roof, a second time, is - its “Surreal but nice”.

Well, sometimes, all we need is friends, music, and a book like- The Room on the Roof to fill in the loneliness.

Unfortunately, i don’t have friends to share my chole poori(a North-Indian dish) at this moment or play with, but yes, I do have- The Room on the Roof, to fill in my version of meeting with friends, and listen to some songs, and just for a day, travel in the hills of Dehra, with cherry blossoms and banyan trees along the way.

And, that’s not nothing, i would say!! 

Sometimes, in the middle of all the conversations of young friends, of their choices, of their dreams:-  it turns out nostalgic. Dreams flaming up in the eyes of young minds, do take you back to your young days, only to return to reality of how those dreams and reality seem to be just so far far away. 

You know what, no matter, how light, Ruskin Bond’s novels might seem to you, but in his simplicity hides deepest philosophy of life. And this one, touches on life & death. 

One moment, we are good, happy, smiling and another moment a storm just came in and bang. Its gone. That’s the biggest surprise life offers in form of death of closed ones, our near ones. 

Well! To everyone who has felt the pain of death- its just life. Birth and death- every moment, that’s the dance of prakriti. We don’t have much say in it. All we can do is, be loving and kind to those who are alive right now and here with us and i can tell this, that’s a real tough job. Because most of the times, our relationships itself are based on wrong fundamentals and driven by a bad philosophy based on consumerism. And that sucks, leading us to suffering even when alive and of course, after, one has died.

Bond’s writing simply takes your heart away when it comes to friends and friendship. And, it has always touched me deeply. The way he finds connection with his friends and the way his friends been a backbone in his life says it all.

Rusty, and his friends - Somi, Ranbir, Kishen - oh- i bet, we all would love to have such great friends in our life. Somi’s care and constant support to Rusty; Ranbir’s fierce and wildness thrusting courage in Rusty and finding a common connection with kishen of being divorced from humanity- is lovely, a bond that Bond would bloom inside the hearts of his readers.

Well- The Room on the Roof is an excellent read to spend some time with and take on a journey that introduces you to the pangs of loneliness, warmth of friendship, youthful love, lost life, hunger, and all the little things that this life has to offer but somehow just go unnoticed. And of course, Bond just has this element of mountains and hills that is always there- that’s what i would call his connection and love for Nature, which is just so so soothing and exquisite.

Just now, this little myna came walking by my side, with her yellow beak and took a little soft flight and i didn’t want to let her fly without capturing the brief moment here.

Some of my favourite quotes from the book-

“I want to be either somebody or nobody. I don’t want to be anybody.”

"We don’t know why we live. It is no use trying to know. But we have to live, Rusty, because we really want to. And as long as we want to, we have got to find something to live for, and even die for it."

"Every moment, every moment someone is born and someone dies, you can count them one, two, three, a birth and a death for every moment. What is this one life in the whole pattern of life, what is this one death but a passing of time. And if I were to die now, suddenly and without cause, what would happen, would it matter. We live without knowing why or to what purpose."

Hmm...Basically, a great read!!

How about you?

Why would you like to go to the Room on the Roof ?

Let us know in the comments below.