‘I’ve come to see you,’ she said. ‘For aong,ong time, I hope.’ And I took her by the hand anded her into my home, my garden of books. And that was how Kiran came into myife. […] If you meet her, she will tell you about the garden of dreams…perhaps she will take you there some day, for she is a girl who can make dreams come true. In a world that treasures ‘being realistic’ more than daydreaming, we sometimes forget that the only way to aim higher is to daydream aittle—how do we have ambition without aittle hope? It is at timesike this when we should remember the desires of your youth. How we dreamed bigger than we could afford to; how weeapt and then thought of the fall. In Garden of Dreams, Ruskin Bond brings together stories and personal essays that talk of such youthful exuberance. He talks ofove and its effect on a tired soul; of friends that become your anchors through stormy days, of romance kindled over chocolates; and many such tales that rekindle our zest forife. This book is for all those who dare to be aittle naïve in this sombre world.