THE BOND OF LOVE – SUMMARY

“The Bond of Love” is an emotional story picturized about the bond between a human and an animal. Written by Kenneth Anderson, the write-up projects the love between an adopted sloth bear named ‘Bruno’ and the author’s wife.

The author had rescued the baby sloth bear while hunting through the sugarcane fields near Mysore. The little bear’s mother was shot dead by one of the author’s fellow travellers. Thus, the author rescued the baby bear, took him to Bangalore, and gifted him to his wife. She was delighted seeing the little furry creature and christened the little animal ‘Bruno’.

Since then, Bruno started growing up with the family. He quickly bonded with everyone, starting from children to other pets. Bruno liked to eat anything—and, in fact, drink anything too!

One unfortunate day, he consumed the poison that was meant to kill the rats and mice in the library. He was paralyzed and rushed to the veterinary hospital for treatment. Bruno was, fortunately, saved once it had ended. At another event, he drank a gallon of old engine oil that was meant to kill termites. This incident, however, had no ill effects on his health.

Bruno continued to grow in size as the days passed. Yet, his playful nature was the same as ever. Kenneth’s wife decided to change Bruno’s name to ‘Baba’, which meant ‘a small boy’ in Hindi. He picked up the habit of listening to commands and entertained everybody. Nevertheless, his size was a problem, and being an animal, he was a threat to the children.

Later, the author and his son resolved to give Baba to the zoo at Mysore. The curator of the zoo agreed to have the tamed bear into his collection, so Baba was packed off and sent to the zoo in a lorry. 

Everyone missed him greatly, among whom the author’s wife was inconsolable. She wept and was fretting for many days, sending a number of letters to the curator to cognize Baba’s health. 

After three months, she decided to pay a visit to the zoo to check on Baba. Most of the author’s friends conjured that Baba would not be able to recognize her, but when he caught a glimpse of her, he howled with happiness and she petted him through the bars of the cage.

She and the bear were inseparable, thus they decided to take Baba back. After all the formalities, she finally brought him back home and made a special island for him with a deep dry pit and his belongings. This way, Kenneth’s wife reunited with Baba, sharing a true and emotional bond of love among themselves.

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The above write-up is the summary of the story “The Bond of Love” written by Kenneth Anderson in the NCERT Class 9 textbook. You can read the whole chapter here.

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