India’s small towns, like its villages, once had a magic all their own. It was where many Indians lived, but now they are rapidly emptying, as more and more residents move to the big cities in search of lucrative jobs and the rather dubious joys of living in sprawling metropolises. As Ruskin Bond, the country’s foremost chronicler of small town life, writes: ‘Villages become small towns, small towns become big towns or even cities, and cities become mega cities. In my ninety years on this cherished land, I have seen this transformation take place. One day, the nation will become one big city.’
The rapid urbanization of India has made ghost towns of some of its iconic places. This book is an elegy to all that we are losing as small towns are buried under a mass of concrete and pollution. It is also an evocation of everything that was worth celebrating about these tranquil, memorable places that were to be found right around the country.
Ruskin Bond is the author of several bestselling novels and collections of short stories, essays, and poems. These include: The Hoopoe on the Lawn; The Hill of Enchantment; The Room on the Roof (winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize); A Flight of Pigeons; The Night Train at Deoli; Time Stops at Shamli; Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra (winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award); Angry River; The Blue Umbrella; Delhi Is Not Far; Rain in the Mountains; Tigers for Dinner; Tales of Fosterganj; A Gathering of Friends; Upon an Old Wall Dreaming; Small Towns, Big Stories; Unhurried Tales; A Gallery of Rascals; Rhododendrons in the Mist; Miracle at Happy Bazaar (winner of the Kalinga Literary Festival Children’s Book of the Year, 2021); It’s a Wonderful Life; The Shadow on the Wall; Song of the Forest; The Last Tiger; The Gold Collection; and The Night Has a Thousand Eyes.
He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999, a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Delhi government in 2012, the Padma Bhushan in 2014, the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 2021, and the Ramnath Goenka Sahithya Samman Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024.
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