The Room on the Roof

It was Bond's first literary venture. Bond wrote the novel when he was seventeen and won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1957. The novel revolves around Rusty, an orphaned seventeen-year-old Anglo-Indian boy living in Dehradun. Due to his guardian Mr Harrison's strict ways, he runs away from his home to live with his Indian friends.

Summary

This is a story about an orphaned boy named Rusty, of Anglo-Indian descent, living in a European colony in Dehra (a place in Uttarakhand) with his guardian Mr. Harrison and the missionary's wife, who wanted him to stay away from Indians and groom him as a pure Englishman. However, in this process, Harrison’s stringent behavior perturbs Rusty’s flourishing teenage years. While walking home in the rain, he was offered help by Somi and Ranbir who go on to become his friends. Rusty is unhappy with his life at his guardian's house and longs for freedom.

He runs away from his home and lives with his friend Somi, who gets him a job as an English teacher for Kishen (Mr.Kapoor's son). At Mr.Kapoor's house, he is given a room on the roof. Mr.Kapoor is a drunkard, who has a beautiful wife, Meena Kapoor. Rusty and Meena fall in love with each other. On the way to Delhi, Meena dies in a car crash. Kishen is sent to stay with his aunt and Mr.Kapoor remarries. Rusty decides to leave India and go to England as none of his friends remain in Dehra. He decides to visit Kishen before leaving for England. In Haridwar, he learns that Kishen has run away from home and become a thief. He meets Kishen and they both leave for Dehra, where Kishen plans on opening a chaat shop and making Rusty an English professor.