PROSE - " HOW FAR OS THE RIVER " BY RUSKIN BOND.

2. 1. INTRODUCTION.
2. ABOUT THE AUTHOR & HIS WORKS
3. PLOT.
4. THEME.
5. CHARACTER & CHARACTERIZATION.
6. SUMMARY.
7. POINT OF VIEW.
8. THINGS TO BE REMEBERED

3. Ruskin Bond’s short story ‘How far is the River’ is taken from a
volume of his collection. The short story reflects the writer’s
understanding of the psychology of a 12-year-old boy who
longs to go out and explore Nature.
Ruskin bond is an Indian author of British descent, who has
written several plays, essays, non-fiction account and many
short stories.
He was born in State Of Himachal Pradesh and was very
closely associated with nature and that's why his stories shows
a deep love for nature and people.

5. Ruskin Bond is an Indian author, who was born on 19th May 1934. His
father was with the Royal Air Force.
 Mr. Bond spent most of his childhood in Dehradun,
where he stayed with his grandmother.
He wrote his first short story, ‘ UNTOUCHABLE ’, in
1950 at the age of sixteen.
He also lived in England for four years where he
started writing his first novel,
‘ THE ROOM ON THE ROOF ’, which would later earn
him the “ JOHN LLEWELLYN RHYS “ Prize in 1957.

6. His stories are influenced mostly by ‘ HIS LIFE ‘ in the hill stations at the foothills of the
Himalayas, where most of his childhood days were spent.
His works include well known children’s stories like,
‘ OUR TREES STILL GROW IN DEHRA ‘, ‘ A FLIGHT OF PIGEONS ‘,
‘ FUNNY SIDE UP ‘, ‘ VAGRANTS IN THE VALLEY ‘ etc.
His novel, ‘ THE BLUE UMBRELLA ‘, inspired a movie of the same name, by The
Bollywood director ‘ Vishal Bhardwaj ‘. The movie won the National Award for Best
Children’s film.
Many of his stories are part of the social curriculum in India, including, ‘
THE NIGHT TRAIN AT DEOLI ‘, ‘ TIME STOPS AT SHAMLI’, ‘ OUR
TREES STILL GROW IN DEHRA ‘, ‘ THE EYES HAVE IT ‘, ‘
THE EYES ARE NOT HERE’ etc was authored by him.
He was awarded the ‘ PADMA SHRI ‘ in 1999 & the ‘ PADMA BHUSHAN ‘ in 2014.

7. The story is based on the unnamed village boy who
has a dream of watching the river about which he has
heard a lot from the people who are living in the village.
He lives in the village which is situated on the hills and
is surrounded by the mountains. The river is flowing
beyond the mountains. He has a great aspiration for
feeling the river water.
The nature has also being depicted and explained
beautifully in the story.

8.  Ruskin bond always writes about his personal experiences
and nature.
 To be Ambitious of achieving something.
 To be Determined to fulfill your dream.
 Pre planning before trecking.
 To be connected to ground.
 Love towards the nature.
 Hard work towards his aspirations.

9. The unnamed boy:-
The boy is very determined towards
achieving the desired dreams of his own.
In the process of doing so, he is also a little
bit careless as he does not let know his
family members about the trek.
He is a bright boy with shining black eyes
along with the untidy hairs.
He is well built up and strong.

11. According to the story, there lived a young boy of twelve years in a
village near a mountain valley. The valley was surrounded by woods.
There flowed a river about seven miles away. The path to the river
has been described as ‘thickly forested’, ‘lonely’ and ‘rocky’, which
possessed only trees, bramble and flowers. No human being, hence
silent.
The river has been described to be concealed by the mountains.
Not many villagers had seen the river. The villagers who had been
there used to talk to the kids about the river, the fish in its waters.
They used to talk about its rocks and currents and waterfalls. These
stories influenced the boy to the extent that he got an irresistible
desire to see the river with his own eyes and touch its water.

15. Ruskin Bond personally reflectes his lonely childhood in his
Writings. Many of his stories are based in and around hill stations
when he grew up.
His English is of the highest quality I’ve seen in Indian writers.
His sentences are well formed, descriptive and engaging.
According to my point of view The story “ HOW
FAR IS THE RIVER “ sets a good example OF THE RIVER i.e.
after the ordeal, the boy turned up a sharp bend & the silence
broke into sound.
The sound of a rushing roaring river. The river has been said to ‘
TUMBLE OVER ROCKS, FAST & FRENZIED, FAR DOWN IN
THE VALLEY ‘.

19. Never give up:-
The boy was so determined that he did not falter.
The woodcutter told him of the long journey.
The path was silent, and at one point he became
discouraged. Since he had already come half-way
and he had waited so long to see and touch the
river, he didn’t give up.
The decision to ‘keep going’ is all what it takes to
make a difference sometimes.

21. THE END