One of the two books reviewed here is by the famous award-winning writer Ruskin Bond, the other by an equally popular one, Raj Chatterjee; the former British born and settled in India, while the latter Indian born.

Bond is essentially a short story writer and novelist. His pieces are therefore generally long such as `Uncle Ken`, `A crow for all seasons` and `Bhabiji`s House`, which are spread, respectively, over 26, 21, and 17 pages.

Chatterjee specialises at writing middles, — short, light pieces on any topic under the sun. Jug Suraiya, another practitioner of the same art, calls him `the undisputed monarch of the middle kingdom.` Bond has forthrightly titled his book as Book of Humour, but Chatterjee`s title The Boxwallah and the Middleman, is of the same class.
Written in first person, both books have an autobiographical overtone, recalling nostalgic memories of the past. Bond`s stories revolve around Mussoorie, which is his home; Chaterjee`s are about Delhi, for the very same reason.
The Book of Humour, an anthology of published and some unpublished pieces, is divided into five parts `Crazy relatives, crazy creatures, crazy places, crazy people and a crazy writer.` The relatives include the author`s grandparents, his uncles, — Ken and Bill and his aunts — Ruby, Mabel, Emily and Beryl (though the last three play no role in the book).

There are some funny anecdotes about Ken, who loves leisure more than work. Once in Lucknow in a train, he is mistaken by the crowd for the famous English cricketer, Bruce Hallam, who was to arrive by the same train but didn`t. He quietly accepts the welcome and bats though he had never played cricket before.

He is appointed as teacher for Maharaja of Jetpur`s sons but loses it by inadvertently beating his highness at tennis. After eating a dinner of curried prawns and scented rice in a Bombay hotel, once, he is `up all night running back and forth to the toilet. Not getting their chance, several dispirited travelers simply opened the window and ejected into space.`

Aunt Ruby`s parrot would not talk as long as it is captive. So she taunts it `You are no beauty. You can`t talk, can`t

sing, can`t even dance.` But once freed, it returns to the garden and, whenever it sees Aunt Ruby, returns the compliment `You are no beauty. You can`t talk, can`t sing, can`t even dance.`

In the `Ghosts of Savoy`, `A gentleman who looked exactly like Rudyard Kipling` walked up to the bar and asked the barman `Do you serve spirits?` But, says the author, `Before we could ask him to join us, he had vanished.`

However, despite frequent flashes of humour, some of Bond`s stories are quite serious, such as the casual discovery of mementoes from the Gurkha War as he dug in his grandmother`s garden. Even a `Crow for all Seasons`, where the author fascinatingly plays a crow, has a subtle moral.

A few pieces are almost dull. There is little that is amusing, for instance, in Bahbiji`s House or in the account of the author`s amorous interactions with Miss Bun, — her `hair heavily scented with jasmine oil.`

Raj Chatterjee`s The Boxwallah and the Middleman, adorned with a foreword by his coeval and also a legendary writer, Khushwant Singh, is a collection of the `middles` that have appeared in India`s leading English newspapers for over 40 years. The title is aptly chosen, for he is the boxwallah as well as the middleman, having started as one and ended up as the other Commercial travellers were called Boxwallahs in British India. And the author`s first employment was as an assistant in a British wholesale business house. After retirement he took to writing. The six-part book therefore begins with `The Boxwallah` and ends with the `Middleman`. The first part is devoted to anecdotes relating to his service career; the last to his life as a writer.

Chatterjee regales people of all age groups. Simple language, simple words, simple sentences, sparkling with wit are the hallmark of his style. The old will identify with the sights and sounds, the long vanished landmarks, lifestyles and entertainments; the young will find a lot of stimulating intellectual fare. Equally fascinating for them would be the comparison between then and now; how far a teenage boy was likely to go with girls in those days.

Several pieces have an O. Henry ending, such as the one where the author believes that his British colleague was going to leave his pretty (stunner) wife in his care, when he was himself away, but it turns out that the colleague meant his cat, Sheba. Or, when the author thinks that the professor walking with him was objecting to girls wearing tight-fitting jerseys, it turns out that he meant scooters on the campus.

The author`s advice to a young man how to rekindle his wife`s love towards him backfires and the fellow finds himself saddled with his mother-in-law instead.

The four-letter word is a hilarious piece. Here it is, of course, `sala,` and its various connotations in Punjabi, Bengali, Gujrati and Urdu. Two anecdotes, one relating to a Bengali soldier in World War I, the other to Nawabzada Liaqat Ali Khan, would make you hold your sides.

However, in `Older than Time`, the author does makes a slip. He confuses IPS (Indian Political Service) to which Iskandar Mirza belonged, with the Indian Police Service. The Indian Police Service officers were called `IP`. But beside humour there are a few quite sober pieces such as the one in the `Ebony Box` about how a Jat zamindar protects a Muslim family during the riots in 1947.

Reading the books is a sure recipe to banish melancholy.

Humour

By Ruskin Bond
Penguin Books, India

ISBN 0-14-306343-X
278pp. Indian Rs195

The Boxwallah and the Middleman

By Raj Chatterjee
Penguin Books, India

ISBN 0-14-306316-2
206pp. Indian Rs250