Mr Oliver's Diary

[Oof! I’m early today! It’s 10pm. I usually post past 12am so you’re going to see two posts for May 5. I’m afraid this is (finally) going to be a log update. I exercised today after a month-long break. Nothing fancy, just some cardio and weights. Feels great. Exercise is like that go-to Ruskin Bond book I read when I need a quick mood boost. Mr Oliver’s Diary. Uh oh, looks like I have something to write about again.]

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Ruskin Bond writes in first person as Mr Oliver, a bald, single, middle-aged teacher man at a boys-only primary boarding school in the beautiful hill station of Shimla, who keeps a (rather irregular) account of things that happen to and around him as he goes about his life teaching and living in the company of 6-12 year-old kids and boarding school colleagues.

It’s a funny and 100% wholesome book. I’ve read it quite a few times already, and (surprisingly) I always laugh out loud every time I read it. I forget all my worries and get lost in that book, in the beautiful atmosphere of that small town in the Himalayas, with those deodar trees and foggy, misty roads, among those 2-page anecdotes of little kids and all the pranks they pull and the downright hilariously funny things that happen at a boarding school. I always wanted to go to a boarding school. This book also made me seriously consider getting a job as a teacher in a boarding school in a small town in the Himalayas. But eh, these are different times. I’m afraid it wouldn’t really work out.

I highly recommend picking up Mr Oliver’s Diary if you have ever read anything by Ruskin Bond and liked it, or even if you haven’t even heard of his name. Ruskin Bond is my favorite author. I love this man’s books so much, I went on a solo trip to Mussoorie (that’s where he lives) to meet him. It was a beautiful trip. I might write about it sometime.