ISBN: 9780144000951    Publisher: PENGUIN INDIA Year of publishing: 2005     Format:  Paperback No of Pages: 120        Language: English

Delhi Is Not Far is one of Ruskin Bond's finest novels about a small town in India and its aspirations. Through its characters, Bond explores the vagaries of life in a small town and paints a vivid picture of their lives. Through this book, in an almost poetic manner, Bond takes his readers on a journey like never before, to a town named Pipal nagar. Through the eyes of Arun, a struggling crime writer in Pipal nagar, Ruskin Bond reveals the plot of Delhi Is Not Far. In the dusty old Pipal nagar, big things rarely happen. There is not despair but there is a sense of resignation in the air. The other protagonists in the story are Deep Chand the barber, Pitamber the cycle rickshaw driver and Aziz. These characters are all bound together by a deep desire to go to Delhi and lead the lives of their dreams. Deep Chand hopes to have a modern saloon where he may give the Prime Minister of the country a haircut. Pitamber on the other hand wants to own a motor rickshaw and Aziz will be satisfied by a junk shop at Chandni Chowk. Arun, meanwhile, seeks inspiration to write that one brilliant blockbuster which will propel his career to great heights. He seeks solace and love at unusual places. He meets a young prostitute Kamla whom, he finds, is wise beyond her age. He finds inspiration in an epileptic young boy called Suraj who oozes optimism despite his terrible condition. Masterfully written in his inimitable style, Ruskin Bond gives a memorable story in Delhi Is Not Far. The New edition of the book was published by Penguin India in 2005 and is available in paperback.
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Ruskin Bond's first novel, The Room on the Roof, written when he was seventeen, won the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. Since then he has written several novels (including Vagrants in the Valley, A Flight of Pigeons and Delhi Is Not Far), essays, poems and children's books, many of which have been published by Penguin India. He has also written over 500 short stories and articles that have appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1993 and the Padma Shri in 1999.
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