Suitability of the poem title/ commenting on nostalgia in the poem and describing the influence of any two friends on the writer.
Nostalgia is the keynote of Ruskin Bond’s poem. Lost in reminiscences, the poet traces the passage of time through the most memorable of his childhood years, spent in in the company of friends ( now lost to him.)From among those most dear to him, stands Manohar a fifteen year old boy, with quiet eyes and a gentle smile. The narrator (the writer here) does not really recall how they met, but he does remember the times spent with this boy who told about his home—about his mother, the village where he lived and ‘the little river at the bottom of the hill’ The narrator recalls how he had sold his bicycle for thirty rupees and left his home in the company of this boy. Together they had taken the ‘pilgrim road’ and ventured forth on an adventure to no one knew where. They had kept walking down a valley, ‘we’d walk and walk forever’—two lonely figures, they saw the lights in scattered houses, and knew they’ had arrived’.
Their friendship offered them many good moments together; the rustic life spent in Manohar’s village made a deep impression on the writer, who seemed to have forgotten about home altogether. He almost grew up into a little village boy, grazing sheep and cattle, while his education and learning lay gathering dust in Dehra. That was his step –father pricked their bubble of happiness and sent his manager to bring him home. The two friends had to part ways ‘He called ‘goodbye’ and waved, as I looked back from the bend in the road.’ The narrator felt a wave of affection surge over him for this simple boy –an affection that has not dimmed over the years. ‘All these years I have looked for you everywhere, in the mountains, in crowds at distant places, beside the sea. And the trains roll in everyday, hundreds of people coming or going or running away. Goodbye, goodbye!’ The pain and anguish of a lost friend is...