The Railway Gang by Ruskin Bond - Not a Book Review

I remember the days when I was in school and I used to hate those ridiculous Parent-Teacher meetings. It was a day when the teacher humiliates the student in front of their parents and the parents humiliate the student in front of their teacher. It's like that age-old ping pong game, a collective activity to make sure that mischievous activities of students like me come to a halt. The only thing I love about those horrible meetings was the Scholastic book fair in our school corridor. Those little storybooks with attractive pictures was a treat to look at. I said 'to look 'at' because I haven't purchased many of them. My Mom used to say that we'll buy one of those after the meeting. And I couldn't ask her to buy me one after the meeting, of course, due to obvious reasons.

But quite recently I came across this little book written by Mr Bond called The Railway Gang.

This is a story of a little dog called Chottu, roaming with his gang on the platforms of a Railway station. Now he is named Chottu because he was too small in size. If you have some stray dogs in your locality, you might find people who call themselves dog lovers, calling them with names like Blackey or Brownie, Sheroo or Pinkey, or any other names like these. These names are purely based on their attributes which helps them to get recognised or sometimes they even listen by the names when you call them repeatedly.

Now Chottu has a full-fledged gang of half a dozen fogs namely Raja, Rani, Rishi, and few others. All day they roam around the platform, gathering staled chappatis and half-eaten fruits to fill up their belly. 

Now the problem is a newly appointed, highly motivated, Stationmaster who chases away the beggars and the dogs from the platform. Now the beggars had to compete with the beggars who sit near the bus stand. But it was much difficult for dogs to adjust with the Dogs near the bus stand. 

But when the station master is nowhere to be seen, the railway gang come back to the platforms in search of food.

The only human friend they have now is Kumar, who is a guard in Doon-Delhi express. He feeds Chottu with food he brought in his Tiffin and has a soft corner for Chottu.

One day, while hanging around with school students on the platform, he gets along with one of them on the train. The train starts moving. The ticket checker left him on the Haridwar station, which was quite alien for him. He roams around alone in the city to find some familiarity, but he couldn't. He desperately wants to get back to the platform he can call his home.

Will he able to reach back to the platform where he can unite again with his gang? You have to read the book to discover that.

What I like about the book

Everything - Literally everything. It was a short, simple, and interesting read. Being an ardent reader of Mr Bond's books, I was frequently travelling to the world he has created down the years. Like I was seeing that world again where Arun used to feed biscuits to a stray dog on platform number eight of Ambala Station. His words actually become a gateway to travel into his world.

The other thing I like about the book is the pictures on every page. They are very well detailed, and one should go slow and spend some time looking at each picture. I bet you won't regret it.

So this is a perfect gift for your kids this summer if you want to indulge them in reading. And it's a perfect gift for everyone who doesn't like things too complicated. 

So that's it for this post

I'll see you again.

Love, Laughter, and Peace

HRN

PS:- You can click HERE to buy the book. :-)

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