Funny Side Up

Simplicity is the forte of this collection of funny essays, poems and tidbits by Ruskin Bond, India's much loved author. Be it the sleepy little town of his childhood on the foothills of Himalayas, the exotic world of palaces and princesses in far off Jamnagar, or the bustling surroundings of a city like Mumbai, an unhurried ease characterizes his world. The cobra beside the path or the spiders at home are harmless, the scorpions `evil -looking, but sluggish', monkeys annoying at times, but one member of the species charming enough to conjure up the image of a girl-friend in the author's mind. Even the wild boars that doggedly lay siege to the broken down car, in which the author is holed up deep inside the forest, do not look menacing.

Beneath this simple and the trivial lurks the author's deep seated view of life. Denying him the modern appliances that others take for granted does not mean that his life is any less interesting or pleasant. In fact his love for old ways often provides him with a new perspective on people and events that others gloss over. Not many would stop from whatever they are doing to watch an ant walking across their desks. Ruskin Bond would, because to him the solitary red ant `represents the world at large. It represents industry, single-mindedness, intricacy of design, the perfection of nature, the miracle of creation.' The ant would go on to inspire Bond to poetic composition.

When an elderly reader asked Bond as to how he managed to write `so much about nothing', Bond answered, "Well, it's better than writing nothing about everything": weighty thoughts indeed couched in simple words.

`Funny Side Up' is full of the author's trysts with `nothing': monkeys who appear everywhere with no specific design, an uncle who does not find his mooring in anything, a fidgety aunt who is sensitive to noise, allergic to choirs and afraid of flowers, a bank manager enamored by the wild nature and the author himself, wary of higher floors and any mode of transportation other than his own limbs.

The tone is simple and linear most of the time. But occasionally Bond strays from one topic to another unrelated topic in the mode of stream of consciousness. In `Frogs in the Fountain' for instance, he begins with marigolds, goes on to his double chin, then to his Grandma's aversion for second helpings, then the frogs in the garden, to Aunt Mabel's fear of flowers and then onto his own phobia of tall buildings.

A personal history of nothingness spanning over half a century and straddling the length and breadth of India, and sometimes the sea and the sky, is bound to be engrossing, when Bond chooses to serve it `Funny side Up'.