LikhoPadho

Ruskin bond was born on 19 May, 1934 in a military hospital in Kasauli (H.P.) Ruskin's Father was the Royal Air Force from 1939 till 1944. He wrote one of his first short stories, "Untouchable" at the age of sixteen in 1951. Most of his works are influenced by life in the hill stations at the foothills of the Himalayas, where he spent his childhood. His first novel, The Room on the Roof, was written when he was 17 and published when he was 21. Bond's work reflects his Anglo-Indian experiences and the changing political, social and cultural aspects of India. 

'A face in the Dark' is the story that is set in a pine forest outside simla. It revolves around Mr Oliver, an Anglo-Indian teacher. He was returning to his school, late one night, on the outskirts of the hill-station of Simla. The simla Bazzar was about three miles from his school. He took a shortcut and was returning through the pine forest. He carried a torch with him. There he saw the figure of a boy in the light of the torch. He found him sitting alone on a rock. He stopped there. He went closer to the boy in order to recognize him and said, "What are you doing out here, boy?" The boy appeared to be crying. His head hung down and he heald his face in his hands and his body shook convulsively. It was a strange soundless weeping. Mr Oliver felt uneasy. He asked the boy to tell him his trouble and look up. The boy looked up and took his hands from his face and looked up at his teacher. The light from Mr Oliver's torch fell on the boy's face. It had no eyes, ears, nose or mouth. It was just a round smooth head- with a school cap on top of it!