SIGNIFICANCE OF TRAVEL LITERATURE AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF RUSKIN BOND'S 'FOOTLOOSE IN AGRA'

Literature in this era, is not only confined to one particular area like British Literature. With the passage of time, it is extended to different Literatures of various colours, societies and cultures. One of these are the travelogues, the travel accounts, the notes of a traveler, containing his impressions of the journey, descriptions of events, and observations, the adventure stories, utopias, and philosophic works, in short "Travel Literature". Travel literature seeks to communicate information about newly discovered lands or those little known to the reader. It is one of the most interesting part of the literature world. It takes the readers to the places and helps in gaining and understanding new different places, its culture and beauty. Travel writing celebrates the differences in manners and customs around the world. It helps the reader to understand other people and places, customs and style of living, it let the readers travel to far-off destinations that they may never see. One of the travelogues titled "Footloose in Agra" written by one the India's best loved writers, Ruskin Bond is such one of them. It is extracted by one his Travel journals he kept in the mid-1960s when he travelled extensively in the small towns and cities of North India. Ruskin Bond is considered to be an icon among Indian writers and children's authors and a top novelist. In this work, he explores that Agra is not actually about Taj and historical monuments, it is much more than that, he explores the laid-back Agra of 1960s in the shadow of everlasting ling mesmerizing TajMahal. This paper is important because Agra, from the eyes of the author is still an old city where one can observe India's old traditional culture. This paper is important as it portrays the beauty and old culture of Agra from crowded localities to busy bajaars also it concludes that Ruskin Bond's portrayal of TajMahal is a feast for the imaginative eyes of one who has never visited the monument. Simultaneously for those who have this idea that Agra is only about the few historical monuments.