'Maharani' - Ruskin Bond

I loved the book. 

Reading it felt like sitting...at times in a chai shop, at times under a tree, at times overlooking the mountains, and listening to a story being told. 

Read at a single stretch, end of book I found myself in a sort of reverie........almost wondering 'why am i not in Mussourie? Where did Ruskin go?'

Ruskin seems to connect into life at a whole different level. It's like he sees into people.... subtle, deep....touching layers beneath, connecting to what matters, and enabling us to see what might otherwise not even be seen, a space where life actually gets lived.

He has this inimitable way of treating the serious, and at time even tragic with a wry humour and ease that allows the heaviness of the situation to just pass you by.......building relationships where none exist, and maybe making them the most significant and long lasting, and such is one with the maharani.

As story, it is set in the hills, full of humour, a sweet connect with a fourteen year old boy, a dash of the supernatural, a different story of Jim Corbett, and of course of the Maharani.

HH, as the maharani is called, is an ageing, beautiful widow, an outrageous and eccentric character, lives with her dogs and caretaker in an enormous old house in Mussorie, taking lovers and discarding them, drinking too much, and fending off her reckless sons who are only waiting for their inheritance. 

The seasons come and go, hotels burns down, cinemas shut shop, and people leave the hill station never to return. But HH remains constant and indomitable,  as does her relationship with Ruskin.....a relationship that from one vantage seems surface level, but one that outlasts all others, one that's called upon, or happens in the moments most needed.....creating a story about love, death and friendship.

In Ruskin's own words "I have known Maharani personally for years. She has an extravagant personality who loves to dominate any kind of proceedings. On one hand I found her difficult to handle and on the other hand I found it hard not to like her.

As I have told the story of Maharani with me in the background. So its kind of my story too which unfolds as Maharani's story progresses over the years" 

A book that now sits alongside my most cherished.