- A Flight Of Pigeons By Ruskin Bond Pdf Free Download Utorrent
- A Flight Of Pigeons By Ruskin Bond Pdf free. download full
- A Flight Of Pigeons By Ruskin Bond Pdf Free Download Torrent
Ruskin Bond's Novella, 'A Flight of Pigeons': For a Sweet Reading Experience
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A Flight Of Pigeons Ruskin A Flight of Pigeons is Ruskin Bond’s classic novella about the fate, history and the human heart. This book narrates the events and the effects on non-Indian, as a viewed from the eyes of a small girl named Ruth. A Flight Of Pigeons by Ruskin Bond - Goodreads A Flight of Pigeons is a novella by Indian author Ruskin.
I just completed reading “A Flight of Pigeons”, a novella by myfavourite author Ruskin Bond. It is one such story I had long thought of goingthrough, especially after viewing its film version, “Junoon”. This is,incidentally, one of the very few movies that I have seen twice, enjoying all theway its star-cast befitting the demands of the script, its scrupulously composedsets, its subdued tone, and its authentic treatment of a historical episode. Thenwhat more did I desire from reading the original story? Well, a story by RuskinBond is always so very special: it must be read in its text version for thereal pleasure of enjoying a story. This is my impression, nay my consideredopinion. His works ever guarantee a sweet flow of narratives and his languageskill is such that it does full justice to the theme of the opus. And now, afterreading the novella, I am sure that it contains all such elements that a readerwould expect out of a historical fiction save the bulkiness: it is merely someeighty pages of text! Ergo, I enjoyed the delightful experience of reading it, evenmore than I liked watching the movie.
The story is simple or, rather, the treatment of the story is straightforwardwith very little crisscrossing as it progresses. The background is the FirstWar of Indian Independence, 1857 when the inspired butless-than-properly-organised Indian mutineers of British Indian army march toDelhi, restore the old poetry-loving emperor Bahadur Shah his long-lost throne andnearly succeed in uprooting the British suzerainty over Delhi and itssurroundings. But then the mutiny does not come without bloodshed and communalacrimony. The British people are targeted. At Shahjahanpur on a fateful summerSunday the congregation at the local church is attacked by the local mutineerscausing loss of lives of many of those who are present there and praying.The female lead of the story Ruth Labadoor who is present there with her fatherwitnesses the macabre scene of her father getting injured while resisting theattackers. She has to leave the scene, her father, now too weak to leave after profuse bleeding, leftbehind to succumb to his injury. Then follows the flight of Ruth and her motherMariam Labadoor, the grandmother of Ruth; Anet and Piloo and their mother. There aremany that came to their help, the first one being Lala Ramjimal who, without somuch as bothering to think about the consequence of giving shelter to thedependents of the enemy, goes ahead providing food and other bare necessitiesto these helpless fellows. There they change their names to the ones familiarto Muslim society: Ruth becomes Khurshid, Anet is called Nanni and Pilloo asGhulam Hussain. They take to Muslim dress and, as for their medium ofcommunication, they being fluent in Urdu face no difficulty.
With all these, they cannot succeed in hiding themselves for long.There is one Javed Khan, a Pathan ruffian who intends to take advantage of theplight of the Labadoors. Especially he is besotted with the beauty of Ruth theteenager whom he wants to marry. He was already married with a wife living but despite that heaspires to marry her because he is entitled to take a second wife as per hisreligious custom. So one day when Lala Ramjimal is out of his house, Javedenters his house and takes Mariam and Ruth, the mother and daughter duo, to hishouse. That creates tension in Khan’s house yet Javed goes on persuading Mariamto give her daughter in marriage with him. However he does not misbehave withthem. Mariam cleverly postpones her decision saying that she would have toconsult her brothers and then only she would be able to say anything regardingher daughter Ruth’s marriage. All that would be possible only after the conclusion of themutiny in Delhi. Jeved grows impatient yet manages to restrain himself fromdoing anything untoward as he had given word to the religious mendicant that hewould not harm the ladies.
Days pass by. After a month and half, there is a new Nawab in the smalltown of Shahjahanpur. Pilloo and her mother as well as Granny and Anet continueto remain at Lala Ramjimal. Here at Javed Khan’s house, Ruth and her motherMariam stay in constant fear, trying their best to buy time and keep theruffian guessing. And then there arrives a visitor at Javed’s—his aunt referredto in the novella as Kothiwali—who happens to be a compassionate lady. Mariam onher part is successful in kindling a feeling of compassion in the corner ofKothiwali’s heart by telling her grief stories. Kothiwali also tries todissuade Javed from harbouring such marital ambition when the object of hisfascination is a poor fatherless girl in turmoil. She even goes to the extentof saying that the English girl is not as beautiful as Javed’s original wifebut the latter does not relent. Javed’s wife’s brother-in-law one Sarfraz Khanreaches there to eliminate the English ladies (granny and Anet included) butthe fearless challenge given by Mariam and the invocation of the name of Allahcalms him down. Then Javed’s wife is invited to her another sister Qamran’splace and she goes there with Mariam, Ruth and Anet. There the decent ladiesimpress their host so much that one day Qamran’s son-in-law promptly comesforward in the defence of the English guests when they were vilified by some querulousneighbour.
While Ruth and her mother Mariam are there at Qamran’s place, themutineers’ fate takes an unfavourable turn. The rainy season is over in themeantime. The patience of Javed Khan thins faster and faster every passing day.In his frustration he brutally whips his half-brother and the maid. Even thesinging boy in the street of Pathan Mohalla is not spared. The other day hegoes to Mariam to beg some medicine, a fact that shows that he is only toowilling to admit his own sick condition. He is also psychologically broken harbouringcompunction even for killing a pigeon. The ladies return to Javed Khan’s houseonly to go to his aunt Kothiwali’s place. There they conduct themselves withdignity enjoying the hospitality of their reputable hostess. Then there iswinter. Mariam starts receiving the credible news about the reverses in thebattle faced by the mutineers of Delhi. By the middle of April 1858, the Nawabof Shahjahanpur is routed in the Battle of Bichpuri. Then is the turn ofKothiwali to flee and with them go Mariam and the girls. Their desperate marchends in Bharatpur where the brother of Mariam receives the ladies.
The foregoing is the short synopsis. This in itself does not makeit a great storyline. What makes it special, then? Well, it’s not a piecewritten to glorify the heroism of our mutineers, the harbingers of an era of patriotism.There is enough literature of that particular flavor. This piece is rather writtento portray the human cost involved in such historical uprisings. Even at thetime of national upheavals there are people who come forward to espouse thehuman cause. At that moment it is not their consideration whether the fellow tobe helped is a Hindu or a Muslim, or an Indian or an Englishman. Writing ashort prologue to the novella, Ruskin Bond underscores this very point: “I published this account as anovella about thirty years ago. I feel it still has some relevance today, whencommunal strife and religious intolerance threaten the lives and livelihood ofinnocent, low-abiding people. It was Pascal who wrote ‘Men never do evil socompletely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.’Fortunately for civilization, there are exceptions.” How true! There is one Ramjimal andtwo unnamed Muslims culling together the bodies of three Christians and buryingthem to accord some posthumous honour without so much as bothering that theywere openly showing their sympathy with the foreigners. There is one wandering Muslimhermit who makes Javed Khan say on oath that he will do no harm to the ladieshe takes home as hostages. Again, take for instance the treatment shown to theladies in distress by Kothiwali, Qamran, her son-in-law Hafizullah Khan—sometimesit appears that people from the enemy camp compete among themselves to accordhospitality to the suffering ladies.
That said, let me ask a hypothetical question: Had Rudyard Kiplingtaken up this theme what would have been the result? Well, my answer is that hewould have made such a monumental mess of the work that it would have beendifficult for us Indians to read it. Rudyard Kipling has written a lot ofIndian stories but most of them stink of his colonial conceit. In his thinking,even a European ghost ranks superior to all the Indian ghosts bundled together![Rudyard Kipling's short story: The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes] A theme like this would have got a very distasteful treatment in his hands.
A book of historical fiction should be different from text-bookhistory. Fiction made out of a simple historical anecdote demands a high levelof literary touch to make it immensely readable. In his novella Ruskin Bond hasleft humour interspersed across the text. Two wives giving expression to theirjealousy through sardonic remarks and their husband deserting them in favour of a life inhermitage is an element of humour in the story. And then one of the two illiteratewives gets a letter composed to be delivered to her husband [mark the language],‘O thou who hasvanished like mustard oil which, when absorbed by the skin, leaves only itsodour behind; thou with the rotund form dancing before my eyes, and the owl’seyes which were wont to stare at me vacantly; wilt though still snap thyfingers at me when this letter is evidence of my unceasing thought of thee? Whydid thee call me your lado, your loved one, when you had no love for me? And whyhave you left me to the taunts of that stick of a woman whom you in yourperversity used to call a precious stone, your Ratna?’ And then there are scary but funnymoments full of ghost stories of jinn falling in love of the beautiful hair ofa girl, of a ghost of a Brahmin youth dying before marriage choosing a pipal treeas his abode to unleash his scary tantrums against the bullocks of the passingbullock-carts. There are ghosts of immoral women—churels—who appear naked with their feetfacing backwards, ghosts with long front teeth sucking human blood; and ghoststhat take animal forms. There are means to know as to what form a particulardeparted soul would take in the domain of ghosts. Quite funny! Ruskin Bondnever misses an opportunity to implant his ghost characters! All is just forfun’s sake!
A Flight Of Pigeons By Ruskin Bond Pdf Free Download Utorrent
During my reading sessions there were at least two occasions when Ithe reader felt like Ruskin Bond the writer. ( Funny is my way—even I had oncefelt like Valmiki while pondering over the episode of Hanuman uprooting Gandhamardanthe mountain: see my blog post at this link.) Well, the first one is when LalaRamjimal comes to Mariam to ask her as to what he should do with her dogs leftwith him. Mariam replies, ‘Keep them, Lala, or do what you like with them. Itis going to be difficult enough for us to look after ourselves.’ There is astory of mine—“The Apt Disposal”—that I have included in my book “The Remix ofOrchid” and in that there is a similar situation: the caretaker Aloto at PortBlair seeks instruction from his master relocated at Pune as to what he should dowith the dog the former has left behind. The owner of the dog who has no more interestleft in the dog says—let me quote from my book—‘Um, I’m not sure…. Do as youfeel. I’m sure you’ll do the best possible.’ The second occasion when I hadsuch a feeling of affinity with the author is when Javed fires at a blackbuckbut injures a pigeon by mistake. Then he is informed that pigeons are peoplewho come out of graves on Thursdays for a little fresh air. Lo! This, too, matchesin some way one of my Hindi stories that I have included in my book “Virasat”[See its translated version: कबूतरों के साथ With Dear Little Doves at this link]. Now, just to keep a replyready before being asked a question: Believe me, Bond Saheb, I’ve not copiedthe ideas from your lovely novella, “A Flight of Pigeons”.
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A Flight Of Pigeons By Ruskin Bond Pdf Free Download Torrent
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