The Ganges is a river which has held India's heart captive and drawn uncounted millions to her banks since the dawn of history. Originating in the mist-filled valleys of the Garhwal Himalayas-a land of dense forests, icy white glaciers, clear gurgling streams and towering mountains, a land known as the land of gods—the Ganga traverses hundreds of miles through the heartland till flows into the sea. In this travel memoir, Ruskin Bond provides a wonderfully evocative description of the places and the people he has lived with and encountered over forty years. He captures the splendour of the Himalayan landscape, its streams, wildlife, flowers, villages and places of pilgrimage and always, at the heart of it all, the Ganga.
Review
'The Story of the Ganges, from her source to the sea, from old times to new, is the story of India's civilization and culture, of the rise and fall of empires, of great and proud cities, of adventures of man….'—Jawaharlal Nehru.
'In this opus, Ruskin Bond reflects on the quarter century he has spent there, becoming, as it were, part of the mountain range he loves so much.'—The Times of India
About the Author
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.
