Listen to Your Heart - The London Adventure
by Ruskin Bond and illustrated by Mihir Joglekar
“Listen to your Heart - The London Adventure” by Ruskin Bond and illustrated by Mihir Joglekar. Published by Penguin. The fifth and final book from Ruskin Bond’s memoirs for children that talks about Ruskin’s journey to London and the events that led to the making of his iconic book, “The Room on the Roof”.
The story starts off with seventeen year old Ruskin landing in Jersey in Channel Islands in November of 1951. He was looking forward to becoming a writer. Until then, he was ready to work for a living as best as he could. He would be staying with his aunt and her family. For the first time, he was so far away from India which for him was his home. The stark changes in weather, lifestyle and loneliness made him quite homesick. A tiff with his uncle who had a colonial mindset made him move to London.
Finally he was in the city where he could try and build his literary career. Diana Athill, an editor from Andre Deutsch Ltd which was a new publisher working on some new and offbeat publications had liked Ruskin’s manuscript. She had promised to reconsider it if he could change it from a journal entry format to a full fledged novel. Read on to see how this metamorphosis happened and the iconic book “Room on the Roof” came into being. All this amidst switching jobs, falling in love, learning to chase a dream without giving up despite all the challenges and compromises.
My eight year old and I enjoyed reading the book and the entire series. He was happy to know the story behind how Ruskin Bond’s first book came into being. He came to know the difficulties and struggles faced by a writer. We loved the theme of the book quoted as follows - “I followed my heart instead of my head. It is is something I have done all my life.” Given that my son loves true stories, he enjoyed this book as well as the entire series a lot. This series has caught his fancy so much that for the first time he wants to read on his own and is now re-reading the entire series for the second time! Otherwise he prefers me reading to him mostly and just listening though he can read. He cannot stop raving about the series. The other day he came back from school and excitedly told me that he spotted the first book in his school library. He immediately picked it up and started reading apparently.
Going beyond the review itself, I do have to tell you the miracle of a story on how we ended up reading this series earlier than I thought we would. The books were on my wishlist and I was planning to get them after my son turned 9 or 10. Little did I know that providence had other plans in store for us. I got a parcel on a weekend a month ago. When I saw that the sender was Penguin India, I thought that it would be the books that I had selected for review. When I opened it, I found a Ruskin Bond memoir which was the last one from this series. I hadn’t selected it as we hadn’t read the first four books from the series. My son who loves Ruskin Bond books as much as us was super excited. He was looking at the book with my husband when they realised that it was a signed copy! Our joy knew no bounds. A signed copy from one of our favourite authors sent to us at home without our asking for it was nothing short of a miracle! I immediately got into action and ordered the rest of the series. We were being given a sign that we had to read the series and it had to be done right away. And the entire series has been devoured within 3-4 sittings!! Thank you so much Mansi and Greeshma from Penguin India!
My son (and us of course!) now wants to meet Ruskin Bond and is eagerly waiting for the opportunity to do so. I have been fortunate to have met him with my husband around 15 years ago at a time when I had never read any of his books. We were in Mussoorie and walked into Cambridge Book Depot as we had heard about Mr Bond visiting the store every week. We bought a couple of his books and got them signed by him when we met him. Only then did I start reading his books and I have loved all his books that I managed to read after that. If not for the pandemic, our plan was to take our then 6 year old to Mussoorie to meet Mr. Bond. He had begun reading his books and started liking them. I just hope this dream of ours of meeting him comes true!
Recommended Age
The book is apt for anyone aged 8/9+.
Reasons to Read
The book is a wonderful memoir of one of India’s most loved writers!
The book gives a glimpse of how one struggles in a completely different environment than what one is used to as well as the challenges and difficulties of an upcoming writer.
P.S - For those of you who may have missed, here are the reviews of the first four books from the series. “Looking For The Rainbow - My years with Daddy”, “Till The Clouds Roll By - Beginning again”, “Coming Round the Mountain - In the year of Independence” and “A Song of India - The year I went away”.