A Little Book of Happiness
By Ruskin Bond
()
About this ebook
‘To find happiness, look halfway between too little and too much.’
—Ruskin Bond
• Why be happy and how, and why not to worry if you think you are not.
• Why it is easy to be happy, and how you can miss happiness even if it stands before you. <
Ruskin Bond
Ruskin Bond is one of India's most well-known writers. Born in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, in 1934, he grew up in Jamnagar, Dehradun and Shimla. In the course of a writing career spanning over seventy years, he has published over a hundred books, including short-story collections, poetry, novels, essays, memoirs and journals, edited anthologies and books for children. The Room on the Roof was his first novel, written when he was seventeen. It received the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. He has also received many other awards, including the Sahitya Akademi award in 1992, the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014. Many of his stories and novellas including The Blue Umbrella, A Flight of Pigeons and Susanna's Seven Husbands have been adapted into films. Ruskin lives in Landour, Mussoorie. His other books with HarperCollins include These are a Few of My Favourite Things, Koki's Song, How to Be a Writer, The Enchanted Cottage and How to Live Your Life.
Read more from Ruskin Bond
A Time for all Things: Collected Essays and Sketches Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Book of Simple Living: Brief Notes from the Hills Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reaching for Kloud9 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLone Fox Dancing: My Autobiography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Little Book of Love and Companionship Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Was the Wind Last Night: New and Collected Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Little Book of Serenity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFriends in Wild Places: Birds, Beasts and Other Companions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to A Little Book of Happiness
Related ebooks
A Little Book of Serenity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Crescent Moon: Poems and Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Swallowed the Moon: The Poetry of Gulzar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Indian Girl's Definitive Guide to Staying Single Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Siddhartha Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gitanjali Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tagore, The Poetry Of Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Immortal for a Moment: Small Answers to Big Questions About Life, Love and Letting Go Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Short Stories Of Rabindranath Tagore - Vol 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Because He Is... Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Khushwant Singh Best Indian Short Stories Volume 1 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pluto: Poems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gita According to Gandhi Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Curfewed Night: One Kashmiri Journalist's Frontline Account of Life, Love, and War in His Homeland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sahir Ludhianvi - The People's Poet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why I Am a Hindu Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5No Presents Please: Mumbai Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGhalib: Selected Poems and Letters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Grandmother's Tweets: Stories Inspired by Avvaiyar's Ancient Wisdom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Five Dollar Smile: And Other Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Siddhartha: An Indian Tale Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Landour Cookbook Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings14: Stories That Inspired Satyajit Ray Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Way of the Monk: How to Find Purpose, Balance, and Lasting Happiness Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Agra Double Murder: A Crime of Passion from the Raj Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStray Birds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mahabharata Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Forest of Enchantments Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Hundred Poems of Kabir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Meditation and Stress Management For You
Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silva Mind Control Method Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Highly Sensitive Person Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Way Forward Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mindful As F*ck: 100 Simple Exercises to Let That Sh*t Go! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Tarot Book You'll Ever Need: A Modern Guide to the Cards, Spreads, and Secrets of Tarot Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overthinking Cure: How to Stay in the Present, Shake Negativity, and Stop Your Stress and Anxiety Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stop People Pleasing: Be Assertive, Stop Caring What Others Think, Beat Your Guilt, & Stop Being a Pushover Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winning the War in Your Mind Workbook: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Breath as Prayer: Calm Your Anxiety, Focus Your Mind, and Renew Your Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Secrets: 112 Meditations to Discover the Mystery Within Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bhagavad Gita Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better (updated with two new chapters) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of Ichiro Kishimi's and Fumitake Koga's book: The Courage to Be Disliked: Summary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Safely Embodied: A Guide to Organize Your Mind, Body and Heart to Feel Secure in the World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Laziness Does Not Exist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Quick and Simple Summary and Analysis of The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overwhelmed Brain: Personal Growth for Critical Thinkers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for A Little Book of Happiness
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
A Little Book of Happiness - Ruskin Bond
Last Saturday, when I was autographing books at the local bookshop, a young college student asked me, ‘What is the secret of happiness?’
At first I couldn’t think of an answer, except to say, ‘It’s no secret. Happiness is right next to you’—with particular reference to the pretty girl who accompanied him.
But thinking about it now, I suppose happiness means different things to different people.
Beena is happiest in her pooja room, or when she is on the phone talking to her children—Siddharth in New Delhi, Shrishti in Bhubaneshwar, Gautam in Dehradun.
Rakesh is happy behind the wheel of his car; the last place where I would be happy, having once driven through a garden wall in Friends Colony, New Delhi.
Nor am I happy on a motor-cycle, which is where Siddharth likes to be happy. And you won’t find me in the Beauty Parlour, frequented by Shrishti when she’s home on holiday.
Some people are miserable when it’s raining heavily and they can’t go shopping. I’m quite happy on a rainy day because then I can curl up on a sofa, visit Blandings Castle with P.G. Wodehouse, enjoy a village cricket match with Mr Pickwick and his Dickensian friends, or go rowing on the Thames with Jerome K. Jerome’s three men and a dog. A good book on a rainy day is happiness for me.
As a writer I am also happy when I have completed a story or poem or essay and feel pleased with it. On the other hand, failed creations make me unhappy and I don’t like leaving anything unfinished. If I am not happy with something I have written, it goes into