MY NAME IS BOND! RUSKIN BOND! (3) BOOK 11#

Title - 'The Beauty of All My Days: A Memoir'

Publisher, Year, Place- Penguin India, 2018, New Delhi

Grade- 8^th and above.

Pages- 145

Genre- Memoir/ Autobiography

Author – Ruskin Bond

Brief Biography

Ruskin Bond is one of India's most renowned children's author. His writing career spans over six decades, he has written over 500 short stories and novels including the much-acclaimed 'Room on the Roof', and 'Vagrants in the Valley'. His stories 'The Blue Umbrella', 'A Flight of Pigeons' and 'Susanna's Seven Husbands' have also been adapted into successful Bollywood films. He received the ‘Sahitya Akademi Award’ in 1993, the Padma Shri in 1999 and the ‘Padma Bhushan’ in 2014.

Synopsis

The Beauty of all my days is a memoir of Ruskin Bond which is about some of his past events, the environment, the circumstances in which he grew up and the people who came into his life and have left an impression on his mind forever.

Reading - Writing Strategies

As this book can be used to introduce 'Memoir Writing' to students.

Pre- reading

•  You can begin by asking the students, what is a Memoir?  What is the difference between a Memoir and an Autobiography?

A Memoir is a type of Autobiography. While the Autobiography tells the story of the author's entire life in chronological order, the memoir focuses on the memory of just one person, event or thing that was particularly important to the author. The Memoir is written in the first person and the writing is illustrated with specific memories of the important person during the author's life. Because the Memoir lacks chronology, it is not as clearly structured as an autobiography.

1. You can begin by asking the students to think of a memory that is very special to them.
   
2. Then ask the students to articulate how this one memory has affected their life, why is it important to them?
3. You can also ask them to make a list of other memories associated to this one.
   
4. You can introduce to them the use of imagery. (Imagery is the description that creates a vivid image of setting or an object in the reader's mind.)
5. Give them an example of imagery and ask the students to practice describing the setting, the events of their memory.
   

During reading

• Ask the students to notice, the voice of the author in the text. Highlight the fact that memoirs are always written in first person like autobiographies.
• Ask the students to notice the way various chapters of the book have been named after the memory the author has written about. For e.g. - in ‘Finding my own space’ the author is talking about his first room as a child. And then other spaces he occupied such as his dormitory room and his room at his home now.
• Ask them to notice the way he moves across timelines, without much of a chronology.
  
• You can ask the students to think of old photographs or objects that they could connect to a particular memory.
• You can ask the students to notice the use of imagery. The way great detail has been used into describing the setting in every scene.

Post reading

• You can ask the students to write a draft memoir of their own.
  
• They can start with the memory that they talked about prior reading.
  

Reflection

This book is a beautifully written sample of a memoir. It gives us a deeper insight into the author’s life. You will particularly enjoy the photos from Ruskin’s life inside the book. You will gush over a very young and adorable looking Ruskin of forgotten days. You will find a lot of personal details about his life and get a better understanding of his context as a writer. Because at times while reading his works, one often ends up finding a references that are quite out of context.

The book also depicts the typical Ruskin style of writing, where you can see, hear, taste and smell the setting of the story. Also, the mundaneness of Ruskin's own character.

Sources

 https://education.seattlepi.com/guidelines-students-write-memoir-2864.html