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B.A English Literature
[1st Year, 1st Semester]
Core Paper IV: INDIAN WRITINGS IN ENGLISH
UNIT 5: Short Story
Handful of Nuts – Ruskin Bond
About Author:
Ruskin Bond is one of the most prolific writers of India today. He was born on 19 May 1934, at Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh to a first generation British migrant. He went to England for his primary studies. He wrote his first novel named The Room On The Roof when he was only 17 years. It is a semiautobiographical story of the orphaned Anglo-Indian boy Rusty. He has written about twenty one novels/novellas, five hundred short stories, seventeen essays, eight travel writings, and seventeen song and love poems .He received the Sahitya Akademi Award for English writing in India for Our Trees Still grows in Dehra in 1992.He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 for his contributions to children’s literature.
Introduction:
A collection of Ruskin Bond’s six novels evoking nostalgia for time gone by published in 2009. The six novels included in the collection are: The Room on the Roof, Vagrants in the Valley, Delhi Is Not Far, A Flight of Pigeons, The Sensualist and A Handful of Nuts.
About Story:
A Handful of Nuts is Bond's classic coming of age story. Set in the backdrop of Dehradun in small town India, the story is about being young and adventurous while chasing one's dreams. The narrator, a 21-year-old man, hopes to be an established writer but is constantly distracted by romances and other adventures. Though, it is noted that Bond wrote this book in his sixties. Over the years, A Handful of Nuts has become an inspirational short story for many budding writers.
Summary:
The story was set in post-independence days of 1955 in the lovely
landscape of Dehradon. The author introduces himself as a
free-lance writer who gets just sufficient amount to
sustain and manage his living by writing .His friends Jaishankar and
William Matheson were clearly introduced and their economical status was also
being introduced by making apt comparisons. His love with Indu, daughter of
Maharani of Magador was shown clearly and he succeeded in making us feel his
love towards her and his inability propose her and make her his life partner
was also shown perfectly. Then comes Sitaram, resourceful but annoying son of
local dhobi, who likes Ruskin and Sitaram’s willingness to help Ruskin was
presented perfectly in the starting of the story as they are going to play key
role in the story.
Author brings this romantic waiting seen for his love Indu near
her house balcony and waits there till he sees her. Then he meets Jai Shankar
who asks for jilebis there by author shows the nature of Jai Shankar and
William Matheson who lends money from the author for small thing sand never
returns it. And author mentions Jai Shankar fear towards darkness and his
ability to live life in the darkness as his landlady didn’t pay the current
bill for him, he had to live in a room of no electricity. And at the end of the
day author becomes a poet and writes poem on his love Indu.
In the later part Stewart Granger, a film star, comes into picture.
His arrival was discussed by the people of Dehra and then he comes, troughs a
party and then leaves as the shooting had been shifted. Later author mention the
arrival of his twenty first birthday and mentions the importance of the age and
his four years stay in London as a freelance writer. After that Sitaram helps the
author to get out of his stomach ache, after which they discusses about the
authors birthday. Author and Sitaram goes to a bicycle ride for a refreshment
and gets a pleasant time and author imagines his dad standing there and says
some inspiring words to him and recall a poem by Nelson Eddy. On the way back
author sees Indu and invites her to his birthday and also discusses about his
manly hood and his willingness to get Indu as his life partner and after wards
author and Sitaram goes to a move with cheap ticket where Sitaram turns on by
seeing actress Madhubala, meanwhile author explains some cinema stuff in Dehra
.and jai Shankar appears and asks for jilebis whose amount is paid by Sitaram.
After that they discusses about the Shankar’s new painting and at the end of
day author offers Sitaram to stay with him.
Meanwhile
author’s birthday comes and Sitaram gets a present to the author and also
author lucks gets better as an unknown person comes in and pays him 10 rupees
for giving name to his new toilet design. After that birthday party starts and
all gets attended including Indu and her mother and food items were supplied by
author’s landlady and Indu gives a present of box filled of ‘a handful of nuts’
and leaves with her mother.
Author feels very good for
having a companion like Sitaram and says that he likes sitaram accompanying his
bicycle rides and also other things and then Dileep kumar gets out of saloon, who
is here to meet an old friend of him. Meanwhile Great Gemini Circus starts in
the little grounds where author and sitaram goes and finds Indu with prince of
purkazi and gets feeling of jealousy towards him after wards author tries not
to get bad impression from his co-author Nergis Delal. Sitaram gets some much
attracted towards the circus and mainly toward circus girls and afterwards
sitaram gets busy for a couple of weeks and appoints himself as a helper to the
circus people and helps them to get the things whatever they want .and gets a
job there as the manager of the circus likes him and he was willing to pay a
fee of 200 rupees to Sitaram. Afterward an interesting character called G.V
Desani, a guy who carries a coffin with him where ever he goes as he feels that
he gets better sleep in it, and asks for Ruskin signature for petition to a Nobel
Prize for his novels and asks for some other writers address.
Later author brings the story to his family and his ancestors and
explains his family’s past briefly and clearly sitting in the cemetery where
his relatives have been buried for years and sees a escaped circus tiger and
passes the information to Sitaram and who interns alters the circus people and
author mentioned in a funny how the people of Dehradoon reacted on the passing
of tiger in the streets and which later gets disappeared into nowhere. When
author entered Indu’s house for her, her mother gets him and gives him a bad
kiss and author gets sick of and gets afraid of her, and escapes as soon as he
can and tries to avoid her after that whenever he sees her. And Sitaram gets a
chance to leave Dehra with the circus and mentions it to the author and which
brings a feeling of desertedness and author expressing his inability to get
Indu and his jealousness towards the cricket playing prince and goes for a
cycle ride and gets followed by Maharani of Magador and try to escape for her
and he did succeed. And here the story gets to the climax.
Sitaram leaves him and goes with circus and author feels that he
lost his love Indu and thinks of withdrawing money from the bank and leaves the
town for a while and returns to find his dear roommate has returned because
author thinks that he missed him and also gets a cheque of seven hundred from a
newspaper to his novel and thereby turns his future.
The story ends like this, Indu turn out to be a nice and graceful lady and gets married to a hotelier and Sitaram lives with the author for a while and later he tries his fortune in Bollywoodand in turn becomes a famous actor and asks author to stay with him which author refuses.
Plot and settings: The story of ‘A Handful of Nuts ‘ was set in post independent India of 1955 in the lovely land scape of the dehra doon where had lived his teen age and his youth . the landscape and beautifulmountains of the dehra clearly influenced author in the story.
Characters:
RUSKIN: A man of very young age who aspires to get success in the field of writing and constantly get diverted by the romance and escapades and other distractions and he is a lovely character about whom the story keeps on around.
SITARAM: He is the son of the local dhobi who turns out to be a good friend and a great companion to the author and he is main supporting character in the story and without whom story will turn out to be a boring one.
INDU: She is the love the author and the daughter of royal family and who likes author as a friend but it was never mentioned in the story that she has feeling for the author. Her character plays a key role in bringing the romantic feeling in the story.
MAHARANI OF MAGADOR: She is the mother of Indu, who doesn’t accept author as a right choice for her daughter and later in the story she tries to seduce the other.
JAI SHANKAR: He is a friend of the author and who normally gets money for the small things for the author, he is actually from the doom school and he wishes to be an artist, poet and diarist, somewhat in the manner of Andre Gide. And he always asks for treat of jalebis whenever he meets the author.
WILLIAM MATHESON: From Swiss, had served in the French foreign legion, and William had been drifted into the dehra as the assistant to a German newspaper correspondent. He is also like jai Shankar who gets small amount from the author and never returns to him.
LANDLADY: She is the owner of the room in which the author lives and she is typical old women of 1930’s and she is good to the author in some issues.
STEWART GRANGER: A British film star who is in his 30’s passes through the dehra for his shooting and got the attention of the people of dehra.
CIRCUS TIGER: It’s an old circus tiger which escapes from the circus and enters the cemetery when the author was there and later enters the town creating panic among the people and vanishes into nowhere.
PRINCE OF PURKAZI: He
is the prince of purkazi state and the one who tries to get married with Indu.
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