Book: Old School Tales
Author: Ruskin Bond
Genre: Anthology
Publisher: Rupa Publication
Pages: 120
Old School Tales by Ruskin Bond is a collection of stories that takes us back to our school days, reminding us of careless, free, and simpler times. The fun of hostel life, the adventures with the friends, the hustle and bustle, the mischief, the travel, the funny tension with the teachers, this collection is a reminder of all of it.
There is no doubt that I loved this book. It was a nostalgic trip to the hostel life for me which I miss a lot. When school life meets with the calming writing of Mr. Bond, a collection like this is created. The stories cover a lot of themes, from the adventures and mischiefs in the school and hostel life to the partition, this collection is a collaboration of all of them, having the carefree life as a common thread between them.
Here are my views in short about all the stories of this collection:
“The School Among The Pines” is the first story in the collection which I have already read before in the book “Read Well, Write Well” where it was titled “A Long Walk For Bina”. It is the story of Bina, Prakash, and Sonu and the experiences they went through when they had to cross the river, jungle, and mountain and of their school as well. An intriguing, fascinating, and enjoyable story.
“The Long Day” is the story of Suraj and of all of us when we face the dilemma of getting to come face to face with parents when they get to know our exam results, especially when they are bad, oh sorry! Worst! And how we try to ignore and get away with that situation as soon as possible. And there are so many moments in the book which feel so relatable, especially because we get to see so many minute details which we used to observe when we were quite young and which we ignore now.
“Be Prepared” is the story of Suraj. And with the writing style having so much wit, fun, and humor, we see how luck sometimes makes things how we want them to be!
“The Four Feathers” is a story about four friends and their first adventure. They are living in a hostel and from the description in the first paragraph itself, so many memories were overthrown since I have been in the hostel for seven years and that fun part that was mentioned here was so relatable. The adventure they did in the story was a lot more “adventurous” and when Ruskin Bond adds humor in any story, it looks like this!
“Miss Babcock’s Big Toe” is the story of a staff nurse at the school who was “a fidgety, fussy person” and how her trait of not being able to hear properly led to another adventure. It reminded me of the “Sick Room” of our school and how we used to hear so many imaginative stories of students intending to bunk some classes, but none can match the level of this adventure, for sure!
“Reading Was My Religion” is a tale of how our teachers help us in building habits that become a part of ourselves in the future. Mr. Jones was very vocal and expressive with his reading choices and opinions and impacted the narrator deeply. And then we see a lot of recommendations, book references, and a shared joy for reading.
“Koki Plays The Game” is the story of how Koki, who was the extra- the twelfth player of the cricket team became the permanent one. The story shows very intelligently how local cricket works: biased empires, team selection, breaking barriers, and how cricket unites us.
“From The Pool To The Glacier” is the story of three friends- Rusty, Anil, and Kamal and their adventure of finding a glacier, surviving the ghosts manifesting from Anil’s mother’s storytelling, and climbing a hill to reach the glacier. And throughout the journey, the author takes us through various childhood emotions. And the details of the localities and the folktales were something that stood out very well.
“Adventures In Reading ” which I read in the book “Read Well, Write Well” as well, talks about the joy of reading, especially back in time. It talks about the pocket-size books and memories associated with them, writing by hand and not by typewriters and the joy associated with it, and about the comics and how they evoked the joy of reading for the author. It was nostalgic writing, and as a reader, you get glimpses of it, and you feel it.
“The Visitor” and “The Trouble With Djinns” are stories that I know I have read before, but I am not able to recall which collection! These two are lighthearted stories. Where the former talks about what changes Amir went through when he had an unexpected and unknown visitor, Mohan and the latter is a story that talks about the trouble that Djinn faces!
“Our Great Escape” is my personal favourite story from the collection. A very emotional, heartwarming, and the same time heartbreaking story. It talks about how the author bonded with a boy, Omar when he was in the boarding school in Shimla. And their friendship bloomed because of shared disinterest in people around them and how the partition, between India and Pakistan, changed them forever. The two quotes below shows how impacting it was.
(i) Omar and I sat on a damp wooden bench and talked about the future in vaguely hopeful terms, but we didn’t solve any problems. Mountbatten, Nehru and Jinnah were doing all the solving.
An excerpt from “Old School Tales”
(ii) ‘And when all the wars are done,’ I said, ‘a butterfly will still be beautiful.’
“The Whistling Schoolboy” is again a story that I read in “Read Well, Write Well” which is about a surreal experience that the protagonist went through.
And the last story, “Masterji” which I read in “Mrs. Bhushan To The Rescue” shocks with the twist in the end, giving enough fun and laughter to make the story memorable.
Although “Read Well, Write Well” is my favorite book by Mr. Bond, and this collection has all the elements to surpass it, there were a lot of stories here that I have read before, and most of them in the favourite ones only. And although this collection offered me a lot of stories and emotional connectivity, I was left with the feeling of more.
Go for this book if you want to read it and go through a carefree life again. A book that I highly recommend. I’ll give it 4/5 stars.
I was provided a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
You can buy the book from Amazon or any bookstore near you!
If you liked the review or have any feedback, don’t forget to let me know in the comments! Also, if you haven’t followed my blog till now, what are you waiting for?
Read Also: The Girl On The Train by Ruskin Bond
Jainand Gurjar 
One thought on “Book Review: Old School Tales by Ruskin Bond”