Mukesh Starts a Zoo

Description

What else can we have in the zoo?' asked Teju. 'We need more than a lizard.' When Mukesh decides to start a zoo with the help of his friend Teju, little does he know it's no child's play. He and his friends work hard at finding animals, and making them enclosures in their zoo. With a house lizard, a parrot that chants prayers, a dog with yellow eyes, and the washerman's donkey as their star attractions, how could they possibly fail! But when visitors are escorted around the zoo, there is complete pandemonium, ensuing in some rather comical results. Does Mukesh succeed in his dream of becoming a star zookeeper? Peppered with endearing characters and delightful artworks, this story brings alive one of Ruskin Bond's most unforgettable tales.

Ruskin Bond's first novel, The Room on the Roof, written when he was seventeen, received the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. Since then he has written a number of novellas, essays, poems and children's books. He has also written over 500 short stories and articles that have appeared in magazines and anthologies. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1992, the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014. Ruskin Bond was born in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, and grew up in Jamnagar, Dehradun, New Delhi and Shimla. As a young man, he spent four years in the Channel Islands and London. He returned to India in 1955. He now lives in Landour, Mussoorie, with his adopted family.