'Why do you spend so much time in the trees?' complained my grandmother. 'Why not do somethinguseful for a change?'

'The trees are my brothers,' I would say. 'I like to play with them.'

From the banyans of the plains to the deodars of the hills and the mangroves of the coasts, thetrees of India are the soul of our land and its people. Our memories and myths, our songs andsuperstitions-our land's trees are an inextricable part of all of them.

Great Trees of India contains a selection of stories that are Ruskin Bond's love letters to the trees that give this country its unique character. Let the master storyteller's sensitive and warm prosetransport you to afternoons spent under cool shade, with birdsong in the air as dust moats float indappled sunlight-one of the timeless pleasures of life!