In When Darkness Falls and Other Stories, Ruskin Bond displays all the qualities of a master storyteller: a deceptively effortless style, an eye for the extraordinary in seemingly humdrum lives, and a deep empathy with his characters. We...

So here I am, delving into the past like Monsieur Poirot, not to solve a mystery, but to try to understand some of the events that have helped define the sort of person I have become. Some of it, naturally, is in the genes; but much of it...