Stumbling Through Life By Ruskin Bond

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Description

This book weaves together a selection of Ruskin Bond’s essays and writings to bring to the listener the rich tapestry of his life, peppered as it is with delightful eccentricities and a geniality rarely found. Stumbling Through Life brings you Bond like never before.

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Vocal Characteristics

Language

English

Voice Age

Middle Aged (35-54)

Accents

Indian (General)

Transcript

Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
introduction. Take two. Try fail. Try again. Fail again. Try once more that just about sums up my life, a series of failures leading up to a modicum of success. Today we hear of smart young writers turning out instant best sellers, their books selling in hundreds of thousands. For many years, I considered myself lucky if my books were being published at all. Now writers become celebrities. Their books are marketed like Maggi noodles. They pour from the press like popcorn from a vending machine. Literally. Festivals take place in hundreds of towns and cities, and the politicians gleefully attend them. Although I have yet to read everything I Can You Orwell an Agatha Christie, My spare table is overflowing with new books sent to me by authors, publishers and well wishers who wish to improve my mind. Some even solicit my comments and give me a deadline for doing so. I will never read all these books. What will I do with them? The pile gross higher every day. Gautam, who has just finished school, has come up with a solution. Whenever I go out, he says, I'll take one or two books with me and leave them in cafes or dabbas or on park benches. That way, someone may pick them up and even read them. Literature will spread like wildfire. So I fell in with his idea, gave him a little pocket money to spend in the cafe's, and off went his quarter off books. This quarter off procedure was followed for several days, and the pile of unsolicited books was rapidly diminishing. So I thought I'd take a look for myself and see how things were going. Gotham had left a book on the bench just down the road from our flat. I stood behind a tree and presently two ladies came along and pushing the book aside, Sat's down and exchange the days gossip for about 15 minutes before getting up and leaving. They did not even glance at the book five minutes past. Then a monkey arrived on the bench, picked up the book bit into it, see if it was edible, spat it out and then tore it in two. After the monkey had gone, along came two small boys. They seize the scattered pages, turned them into paper airplanes and gleefully sent them flying over the valley. Finally, I wandered down to the bench to examine the remains of the book. The cover was still intact. I picked it up, and to my horror, I saw it was by Ruskin Bond. Where's Doug? Boy got, um, no more pocket money for a week end of tape.