About the Author
Ruskin Bond is an Indian author. He was born on 19th may 1934. He was born in Kasauli, in Punjab. Ruskin's father worked for the Royal Air force. Ruskin studied in a boarding school at Mussoorie. As a young boy, Ruskin was very close to his father and was very happy in the company of his father. His father died during the war when he was ten. At the age of 17, he wrote his first book 'The room on the roof'. He received Sahitya academy award in 1992, Padma Shri award in 1999 and Padma Bhushan in 2014.
Structure of the book
This book "The Whistling School Boy" includes stories of school life. It was published in Red Turtle by Rupa publications in 2015.The book mainly consists of two stories. The two stories have 7 and 9 chapters respectively. The author has also written one page of introduction at the beginning of the book. In this introduction, the author has indicated that he preferred reading the topics that were far removed from the classroom and the dormitories during his school days.There is also an introduction about the author. The total number of pages in the book are sixty four. The blurb contains information about the storyline of the book. These are the incidents from the author's own life that will appeal to every kind of school goer.
Story outline
The book has two parts. In the first part there are seven stories. In the second part, there are nine stories.
In the first part, ' School Days with Ruskin', the stories are related to four friends who are nicknamed as four feathers. The Author is one among the four friends. The story revolves around the boarding school at Shimla.
In the first story, ‘The Four Feathers’, four friends find an abandoned child and decide to rescue it. They bring it to the school and hand over the child to their teacher. Soon, the villagers come to the school searching for the child. They accuse the four feathers as kidnappers. The teacher consoles them and hands over the child back to them. The author, in another story, narrates how he liked spending time with his father during summer holidays in Delhi. As a child, the author was very proud of his father.
The second story ‘Be Prepared’ is about a scout trip which was interrupted by a bear. The third story ‘My Desert Island’ is about the reading habit of the author. The author,during his school days, did find most of the games boring. But, he enjoyed reading and spent most of the times in the library reading books. Mr Brown, the librarian, had given keys to the author. As no one was interested in reading books the author mentions the library as a desert island..
The fourth story ‘Remember This Day’ is about the author's memory with his father. The fifth story is a letter from the author to his demised father. The sixth story ‘Our Great Escape’ is about winter vacation. In the first few weeks of vacation the author had spent vacation with his mother and stepfather. The author had servants to take care of his needs. After separation from his father, the author felt loneliness. Author was also away from his mother and thus the author had turned into a permanent adult. The author needed someone to keep his company. He was in search of a good friend. He noticed a boy named Omar who seemed to behave like an adult. And they became good friends.
The seventh story ‘Reading was my religion’ is about the activities of the author during his school days. The author was not interested in sports. He was instructed to be part of a singing group but was told to make only lip movements without actually singing. But, he was interested in reading and he read many books written by Dickens, Woodhouse and others.
In the Second part, 'School days rule days', the stories are related to scout camping adventures, a few real life situations and horror incidents.
In the second part, the first story titled 'Here comes Mr Oliver’ tells us about the difficulty the author faced in the subject of mathematics. The scoutmaster Mr Oliver taught different subjects including mathematics. The author was finding it difficult to obtain even pass marks in Mathematics. Sometimes when Mr Oliver was in a good mood, he would give grace marks to the author. Mr Oliver had an inseparable companion, a dog. Students called the dog as Hitler. That dog was carried away by a leopard and Mr. Oliver was depressed over this. The author and his friends decided to bring another pet to their teacher and with lot of tact and effort succeeded in their goal. The new dog identified by the students started following Mr. Oliver.
There are two stories in the book that are extracts from Mr Oliver's diary. Both of them are ghost stories. The third story (of the second part) titled, ‘A lady in white’ is about a ghost on the main highway that appears in front of many vehicles and asks for lift. Anyone who gives her lift in that vehicle is prone to an accident.
In another story (3rd Story of the second part, second story from the diary), ‘Missing person:HM’, a headmaster goes missing. Headmaster’s wife complains to the police about this. Many suspect a leopard has taken him or he might have fallen from a cliff. After extensive searching without success, the search team enters Headmaster's garden at dusk. Headmaster was rocking in his armchair enjoying his hot cup of tea. The police ask Him about his disappearance for two days. Then Headmaster says he was feeling very depressed as he was unable to master the intricacies of Kreisler’s Violin Sonata, and in the anger, took off with his gun, meaning to shoot himself. He had spent a day in the forest and the night in a hotel. Then a day at Barog tunnel and railway waiting room.
In the fourth story of the second part titled ‘Miss Babcock’s big toe’ the author and his grandfather(Tata) had to spend one night in the school's hospital. It was overseen by a retired nurse, Miss Babcock, who was deaf. As she was deaf in an emergency she couldn't hear. So, she devised a method.She tied a long piece of cloth from the patient's toe to her big toe. A pull from the patient's toe, and she would be awake. The author was disturbed by his grandfather's snoring. Other patients who were disturbed by snoring transferred grandfather’s bed to the courtyard. Although the nurse brought him back, the old man stopped snoring that night.
In another story (5th Story of the second part), ‘ A Dreadful Gurgle’ the author also shares an experience in which he felt a sensation that a corpse was present beside him. Later the nursing sister tells him that the boy named Tomkinshad died suddenly in the dormitory. When going to bed he looked pale and exhausted.
In the story titled 'face in dark' (6th story of the second part), Mr Oliver would stroll down in the city after it was dark.He would take a shortcut through a pine forest.There was a boy crying. He asked what had happened. The boy showed his face. He had no eyes, no ears,nose,or mouth.He ran towards the pine forest seeking for help. A watchman standing nearby also appeared the same. Mr Oliver had a heart attack and died.
In yet another story,’ The whistling schoolboy’ (seventh story of the second part) author narrates an incident when he meets a whistler while walking. The boy seemed fourteen or fifteen years old. Author tries to speak to him but the boy does not respond. Later, the author reaches a Church and inspects a burial register placed in the church. He finds an entry about a boy who had died in a road accident. The author again attempts to find the boy on the road - but fails to find the whistling boy. .
One story (8th story of the second part) is about Children in India. Poor children coming from villages could not afford to go to residential or private schools. They had to attend government controlled schools with basic facilities.Unfortunately there are no school buses for these children. They walk up to miles. A boy named Ranbir who is determined dreamt to become a pilot. Many children like to play cricket and in holidays they make groups and play. Rain or shine many students all over the country are seen attending schools.This weather conditions ranges from the dust storms in the Rajasthan desert to blizzards in Ladakh and Kashmir. In parts of Orissa children swim in order to reach school.These children sit in a classroom where there is no window and the roofs which do not protect from monsoon rains.
Ninth story of the second part, which is also the last story of the book, has ten sections. This story is about the ways in which Mr Mani,a high school teacher behaves.The plot revolves around a girl named Bina who had finished her primary school and now in order to go to sixth she has to walk several miles everyday to a place named Nauti.Tania Ramola, a new teacher joins the school this year and is assigned sixth standard. Mr Mani was upset because the new teacher was given incharge of sixth and he was still handling the fifth standard. Miss Ramola's brother was a pilot. Her brother flew planes all around.Mr Mani's garden had potatoes. He was having trouble with the porcupines.There was a new dam being built in a place called Tehri. All the school students and teachers visited the dam. There was a heavy downpour for three days. Mr Mani decides to plant dahlias in his garden.That first wet weekend, Bina and Sonu helped their mother plant beans, maize and cucumbers. After their exams were over the rains were nearly over. Bina, Sonu and Prakash were discussing what each one will do after they grow up.Beena wanted to be a teacher. Sonu wanted to be a pilot. And when it was Praksh's turn he said that he would be a flute player and played a rhythmic tune on this flute. Mr Mani gets Potato crop and after some time, he could also get Dahlias flowers.
Interesting observations:
- The “Four Feathers” as they named themselves were four scouts. Although they were not brilliant students, they were helpful by nature. When Mr Oliver lost his inseparable companion and pet dog Hitler, Scouts arranged another pet dog for their teacher tactfully. This showed that students were respectful and loving towards their teachers.
- They rescued an abandoned child below a tree, which showed their good nature.
- Author, while narrating his reading habit, has provided a list of books that he read. These books are interesting for children who are developing reading habit. This can be utilized by a student while developing reading habit.
- While narrating the story the author mentions about the time he spent with his father and mother. These stories are emotional and make the reader feel pity towards the author.
There are many humorous stories in this book. “The scout trip”, “the transfer of his grandfather's bed” are the most interesting among all.
- There are some horror stories as well. These stories are thrilling and generate a kind of fear among the readers. .”A corpse beside the author”, “A lady who asks for lift” (an incident in which Mr Oliver dies due to heart attack) and “a boy on the bicycle” are these stories.
Though it appears as an essay and not as a story, (the 8th chapter of the second part) the author narrates the difficulties faced by the children of India while going to school in various parts of the country.
- The last story is also about children, but it is a long story having ten sections.
The author narrates the story in first person.
Conclusions
This is a very good book for children and beginners of the English language. The language of this book is simple but also helpful in improving the vocabulary. This book, by an experienced writer, is recommended for all for light reading.
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