Famous Author Ruskin Bond Turns 88

Mr. Bond talked about the importance of Indian stories to PTI.

Ruskin Bond is one of the most loved authors loved all ages. His stories encourage writers to try his simple style of writing. Today, he turns 88.  

On his day, the doctor has ordered him to go slow on a pickle, he has cut down on his quota of vodka and finds Charles Dickens long and tiresome but India's favourite author Ruskin Bond is indefatigable when it comes to putting pen on paper - quite literally.

Mr. Bond turns 88 and has moved from his trusted typewriter to pen and writing pad, his appetite for writing seemingly as strong as that of a 17-year-old -- the age he wrote his debut novel "The Room on the Roof".

Since his first work in 1956, he has written over 500 short stories, essays, novellas, and more than 50 books for children. And there's plenty more from where those came from.

While speaking with the news agency PTI from Landour, the kid's favourite Bond said, "In India, you don't run out of stories or material of stories because something is happening all the time. There is never a dull moment, not just in the country as a whole but in your city, small town or village. Life is constantly in a process of change or upheavals."

"If you are living in Europe, Britain or America it is monotonous. Everybody is living a similar sort of existence, the same custom, the same language or the same way. Here we have different languages, customs, ethnicity and backgrounds. It's a whole different canvas. Also, I am a compulsive writer." Bond, who calls himself a prolific reader and compulsive writer, still writes for at least an hour every morning.

His latest book, "Listen to Your Heart: The London Adventure'', to be released on his 88th birthday, gives readers a peek into the four years he spent in the Channel Islands and England.

The fifth -- and final - the volume of his memoir, talks about how he muses over his loneliness, switches jobs, falls in love, befriends the ocean and relentlessly chases his big dream of becoming a famous writer.

The author was born in 1934 in Kasauli, he grew up in Jamnagar, Shimla, New Delhi, Shimla and Dehradun. Apart from three years in the UK, he has spent all his life in India.

He lives with his adopted family in Uttarakhand's small cantonment town of Landour, which for years has been attracting fans hoping to have a glimpse of the celebrity author in a tea shop, somewhere on the winding roads or a fleeting look through the window of his home.

Ruskin Bond said he read and wrote way more than usual over the past few years, particularly during the Covid induced lockdown when there was nothing else to do.