Ruskin Bond @90

Updated: Aug 5

Image Credit: WION

Introduction:

“Writing for me is the simplest and greatest pleasure in the world. Putting a mood or idea into words is an occupation I truly love.” – Ruskin Bond

Well, Bond is a man of his words, and so if the penchant for writing has been taken ever so seriously by a writer, it is none other than him. From weaving imaginary yet relatable characters and penning crisp yet deep prose, to evoking a profound sense of nostalgia and warmth, Ruskin Bond is everything but ordinary. I cannot vouch for all of my schoolmates, but I think most of us, after having read his short stories in our English books in one standard or another, became fans of his writing. Personally speaking, Bond’s writing, during my early school years, had led me to a spiraling tunnel of books that is now never-ending. His books were the first ones to burgeon in the collection that I now have, for having read one book, would always compel me to get another one. It is Bond’s art of remarkable storytelling which has us all entranced, that I, along with the whole world, would like to cherish as he turned 90 on 19 May 2024, fetching for himself another decade of writing that effortlessly holds onto his ardent readership and creates a magic that shall linger on till generations.

Early Life:

Born on 19 May 1934 in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh to Anglo-Indian parents Alexander Bond and Edith Clarke, Ruskin Bond led a mobile lifestyle during his childhood. He spent the first six years of his childhood in Jamnagar where his father used to teach the royal kids. After that, he shifted to Dehradun when his father got a job in the Royal Air Force.

When Bond was eight years old, his parents got separated, allowing him to live with his father in Delhi from 1942 to 1944. Bond calls this period the most memorable time of his life as he shared a close bond with him. He says that his father was like a keen companion of his, taking him to the cinema, book shops, and old monuments. In 1943, after a year of being home-schooled by his father, Bond went to the Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, and there bloomed his love for reading. He never got to read many children’s books and so, started straight from Crime and Thrillers, and then proceeded to the classics of Dickens, Stevenson, and J.B. Priestley. And just when Bond was beginning to enjoy his school, he received the tragic news of his father’s death, giving him a major heartbreak. “A great void opened up in front of me; I knew almost immediately that my life had changed forever, and that there was nothing, absolutely nothing to look forward to”, he writes on his father’s passing.

Bond’s appetite for books fed into his writing. Up till graduation, he had written some stories which featured in a couple of magazines. His confidence in his writing grew as he came of age. And so sure was he, when he graduated in 1951, that the prospect of becoming a writer seemed more promising to him than a secured future in the armed forces, which his mother had hoped for him. About his fascination with becoming a writer, he says, “I was young enough to be scornful of money, and while fame would have been nice, it wasn’t my primary concern. The romance of being a writer was what attracted me.” Hoping to see his name engraved on a book cover, Bond moved to Britain, where almost all the writers he looked up to had made their careers.

At the age of seventeen, Bond moved to his aunt’s home in Jersey in the Channel Islands and after about more than a year living there, he moved to London for better prospects. In 1955, he published his first book, ‘The Room on the Roof’ which saw immense success and won him the John Llewellyn Rhys Award in 1957. With the prize money that came with the award, Bond bought a ticket to India since his heart longed for a life here. He says in his autobiography that after he left India, he realised he was Indian to the core and nothing else. After coming to India, he worked in Dehradun and then Delhi but finally shifted to Mussoorie in 1963, which allowed him to write a plethora of work. Since 1980, Bond has been living with his adopted family in Ivy Cottage, Landour.

Works and Writing Style :

Ruskin Bond boasts of a prolific writing career that spans more than seven decades and continues to thrive, for he is not one who slows down. Bond has several accolades to his name. He has authored over 500 short stories, essays, anthologies, novels, and books for children. Apart from being a John Llewellyn Rhys awardee, Bond is also the recipient of the Padma Shri (1999), the Padma Bhushan (2014), and two awards from Sahitya Akademi–one for his short stories, and another for his writings for children. Also in 2012, the Delhi Government gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award. Most recently, he has been awarded the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, a testament to his eternal legacy. Many of Bond’s books and stories have also been adapted into popular films like ‘7 Khoon Maaf’, an adaptation of his short story ‘Susanna’s Seven Husbands’.

Image Credit: Filmfare

Bond has a style of writing about him that is inimitable. Rightly hailed as the ‘Indian William Wordsworth’, his articulation transports the readers to places nestled in the lap of nature, kindling authentic feelings of being amidst nature’s pristine beauty. Being a lover of the mountains, he contrives to embed in the minds of the readers every little detail about the mountain way of life with his particular and vivid descriptions. Bond’s picturesque portrait of the landscape of the mountains comes to the succour of those sweltering in the summer heat of the plains. His vision provides an escape from the wearisome reality of the plains and provides refuge in a world that is more pleasant and even blissful. His use of phrases like ‘the taste of sweet tea’, ‘fresh pale green leaves in the spring rain’, ‘sweet-smelling grass’, ‘rusty red-roofed cottages’, etc. evokes breathing images of the mountain life and the readers are unable to extricate themselves from the imagery his words create. Here’s an excerpt of his work:

“Deep in the crouching mist lies the mountains.

Climbing the mountains are forests

Of rhododendron, spruce and deodar-

Trees of God, we call them- sighing

In the wind from the passes of Garhwal;

And the snow-leopard moans softly

Where the herdsmen pass, their lean sheep cropping

Short winter grass.” (Ruskin Bond, 2004, The India I Love, pg. 53)

What is concomitant with the name of Ruskin Bond is his knack and love for writing about children. He is a pioneer of children’s literature, having written more than 65 books for children. Bond did not have an easy childhood and this is compensated by his books for children, many of which are autobiographical or semi-autobiographical accounts reflecting his wish for a normal and jovial childhood. In the introduction to ‘The Night Train at Deoli and Other Stories’, he says that his stories related to children acted as therapy and helped him to deal with difficult situations. After the birth of his grandchildren in Ivy Cottage, he frequently wrote for children to keep his grandchildren entertained. Upon being asked about his preference for writing for children, he says, “As a boy I used to write for adults. It was only when I was 40 that I started writing for children. And I was much more successful.” His stories like ‘The Cherry Tree’, ‘Binya passes by’, ‘The Chakrata Cat’, ‘The Prospect of Flowers’, ‘On Fairy Hill’, etc. make for easy yet captivating reads. His writing style marked by lucid, personalised, direct, and seamless articulation of his characters and prose captures the humdrum existence of everyday life in beautiful yet unanticipated ways. And so, he remains a hit among children.

Though Bond had a flair for writing from his very early years, he never thought that he would become a full-time writer. Recalling his early career choices, he quips, “I wanted to be an actor, that never happened. I wanted to be a tap dancer, never had the figure for it. Then I realized I could write.” With Bond’s aplomb in his writing and his decision to become a writer out of his own volition, in an age when the choice of choosing one’s career was very low, it was only natural that he became a writer. Bond’s immense ability to write has translated into the form of hundreds of books, essays, poems, etc. But, it is not solely for the sake of publication and profession that he writes. He writes just so that he can have a feeling of delight. On his freedom to write, he says, “The world around me–be it the mountains or the busy street below my window–is teeming with subjects, sights, thoughts, that I wish to put into words in order to catch the fleeting moment, the passing time, the laughter, the joy, and sometimes the sorrow.” His mantra for pristine writing is that the conception should be as clear as possible and that words should flow like a stream of clear water, preferably a mountain stream! He shares that clarity along with a good vocabulary and proper channeling of a real physical emotion can make one a great writer.

Two of many of his best works:

The Room on the Roof: In a book that bore him the Llewellyn Rhys Award at the precocious age of seventeen, Bond describes a part of his teenage life bursting with feelings of loneliness, love, anger, anxiety, and hope, and the readers live it vicariously through Rusty, the lead. Living with his uncle and aunt in the Anglo-Indian neighbourhood of Dehradun, Rusty, an orphan, remains isolated from the rest of the world as he is strictly instructed by his guardians not to mingle with people other than their kind-Englishmen. However, when the opportunity presents itself, Rusty overcomes his overbearing guardians and secretly goes to the bazaar of the town where he becomes friends with Somi, Ranbir, and Suri. Rusty loves his new friends, but when his guardian finds out about his ventures, he gives him a thrashing. Fed up with the everyday suffocation, he decides to run away from his home after an eventful Holi. In his independent and wholly new and adventurous world, Rusty experiences love, death, loss, freedom, and a bunch of other feelings that he has never experienced before. Ruskin Bond, through Rusty, enables the readers to get a glimpse of his life that is wrapped in enthralling but also dismaying episodes. He succeeds in painting a rebellious boy who overcomes the chain of suppressions that surrounds him and finds friendship, love, help and everything good that the world has to offer. The book’s memorable characters leave an indelible mark on children and adults alike.

The Blue Umbrella: This best-selling book by Ruskin Bond, dives into the life of a typical Garhwal town bedecked with lush green valleys and pine trees that come alive with his vivid imagery, whilst also exploring the themes of loss, greed, humility, and gratitude. Binya, a mountain girl of about ten, while grazing her cows, finds herself amidst a pack of picnickers from the plains. One of them has a small blue umbrella that Binya falls in love with and even gets in lieu of her lucky leopard-claw necklace. Upon receiving the umbrella, Binya flaunts it in her town as if it were a very prized possession, something which can never be parted with. And rightly so, for it is a beautiful floral umbrella that everyone gets jealous of. Ram Bharosa, who runs a tea shop in the town, is so envious of it that he is tempted to steal it. Subsequently, the story takes a turn that marks a change of heart for both Binya and Ram Bharosa. It explores the bare truths of life: men falling prey to wanting what they do not need and children coming to rescue their souls from such rapacity. Also, Binya’s resolution to never let go of her umbrella shows tenacity of the kind that can never be suppressed by people like Ram Bharosa but can only be abated, if she demands it. Even though the story is written for children, it finds its appeal amongst readers of all ages.

Simple joys of life:

Bond’s life is an amalgam of simple pleasures he finds around him. Be it a book, a window, a butterfly, or a meal, Bond is fond of all the small things that he comes across. One of the things that he cherishes the most is his family. He has been living for many decades with his adopted family, first starting with Mr. Prem Singh, his wife, and their son Rakesh in Ivy Cottage. On his decision to not get married, he says that he is a family man without getting married, so he doesn’t regret it at all. Now that his family has grown into many members, he has more to write about it and celebrate it with the world.

Bond’s ability to write stems from his passion for reading. Being a voracious reader, he finds himself plunged into books all the time. He says that he is a reader first and then a writer. During his school time too, being in-charge of the school library, he used to retreat to the library and read. Even now, he reads four newspapers a day and three books a week. And like most of us, Bond is a fan of comic books, with The Wizard, The Magnet, The Champion etc. being his childhood favourites. He says that he no longer gets comic books for himself, but for his grandchildren, and it is not to say that he reads them right beforehand!

One of the things that gives Bond a great joie de vivre is his window which has inspired several memorable characters. Comparing his window’s importance several years earlier and now, he says, “Then as now, the view from the room, its windows, has always been an important factor in my life and I don’t think I could stay anywhere for long unless I had a window from which to gaze out upon the world.”

Talking about food, Bond says that he loves frothy strawberry milkshakes and devours his favourite ‘mutton kofta curry’ made in Kashmiri style. Every year when his birthday arrives, the whole town gathers to celebrate it like a festival. However, being a grounded man, Bond’s birthday gift can be as simple as this: “A mynah bird alights on the window sill, delivers a short speech, waits for me to nod my approval and takes off. My birthday gift in advance.”

Cherishing life:

As Bond celebrates his entry into a new decade of his life, he stands tall as the vanguard of the writers trying to create their own space in this profession and of those who continue to evolve their writing to suit the needs of the time. Bond’s life is a testimony to what people can achieve if they follow their passions doggedly. And in this long and arduous journey of life, Bond also reminds us to be happy: “Happiness is as exclusive as a butterfly, and you must never pursue it. If you stay very still, it may come and settle on your hand. But only briefly. Savour those moments, for they will not come in your way very often.” We cherish the words that Bond has written, the magic that he has created, the profound impact he has had on his readers, and the joy that he spreads with his presence. Being a nonpareil storyteller that he is, we wish that his pen never runs dry.