Overview :
Ruskin Bond is an Indian author of British descent. His father, Aubrey Alexander Bond was an officer of the Royal Air Force (RAF) post in India. He studied in Bishop Cotton School in Shimla. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1992 for Our Trees Still Grow in the Dehra, his novel in English. Bond has written hundreds of short stories, essays, novels and books for children. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and Padma Bhushan in 2014. He lives with his adopted family in Landour, Mussoorie.
Author Portfolio :
Bond started displaying his literary talent in England. He wrote his first novel named Room on the Roof. It was a semi-autobiographical story on the life of an orphaned Anglo-Indian boy, reflecting parts of his own life. The book made him win prestigious John Llewellyn Rhys Prize that is awarded to British Commonwealth Writers who are under the age of 30. The book was primarily based in and around Himalayas and was successful in capturing its beauty and ethos in a manner that was never tried before. Its sequel named Vagrants in the Valley followed it. Riding on the success of these two novels, Ruskin took the journey back home.
The inspiration of his work has always been the hill stations at the foothills of the Himalayas. It was where he spent most of his childhood. Some of his novellas when he was young mirrored the kind of life and experiences he had when he was living in Dehra Dun. He lived there in a small rented along some of his friends. His autobiographical work called Rain in the Mountains majorly includes his life spent in Mussorie. The book called The Room on the Roof was written when he was merely 17 and it included his experiences when he was staying in England and craved to come back to India. It also has a lot of information about how his parents were and his relationship with them. It was after the publication of this book that he finally decided to make writing his profession. It was in England that he was trying to find a publisher for his book and he struggled to get one. The book also has a clear description of his journey to taking up of writing seriously in his life.
Ruskin Bond has now been writing for more than 5 decades. He has stressed more on the local elements of Himalayas in his writings. His writing style is distinct in a way that it tries to make reader understand the landscape and ethos through carefully mastered words. His writings have won him both tremendous critical acclaim as well as a long list of fans throughout the literary world. Replete with unassuming humor and quiet wisdom, his stories manifest a deep love for nature and people. His mesmerizing descriptions about the flora and fauna of Himalayas cannot be missed in his 100 something short stories, essays, novels, and more than thirty books of children that he has written.
His works has inspired several generations of writers, authors and scriptwriters. His novel named The Flight of Pigeons has been adapted into the acclaimed Merchant Ivory film Junoon. The less known novel named The Room on the Roof has been adapted in to a BBC produced TV series. Nevertheless his greatest achievement comes from the fact that several of his short stories from his collections have been incorporated in the school curriculum all over India. It includes jewels such as The Night Train at Deoli, Time Stops at Shamli and Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra. In spite of all these successes, Bond can be concluded today as a media-shy and reclusive literary genius. He spends his days with his adopted family at a place close to Dehradun. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award for English writing in India for Our Trees Still grows in Dehra in 1992. He has also been conferred with Padma Shri, one of the most prestigious civil awards in India.
Life Styles :
Ruskin Bond was born to Edith Clarke and Aubrey Alexander Bond, in Kasauli, Punjab States Agency, British India. His father taught English to the princesses of Jamnagar palace and Ruskin and his sister Ellen lived there till he was six. Later, Ruskin's father joined the Royal Air Force in 1939 and Ruskin along with his mother and sister went to live at his maternal home at Dehradun. Shortly after that, he was sent to a boarding school in Mussourie. When Bond was eight years old, his mother separated from his father and married a Punjabi Hindu, Hari. His father arranged for Ruskin to be brought to New Delhi where he was posted. He was very close to his father and describes this period with his father as one of the happiest times of his life. When he was ten, his father died during the war, while he was posted in Calcutta. Ruskin was at his boarding school in Shimla and was informed about this tragedy by his teacher. He was thoroughly heartbroken. Later, he was raised by his mother and stepfather who lived in Dehradun.
He worked for a few years freelancing from Delhi and Dehradun. He sustained himself financially by writing short stories and poems for newspapers and magazines. On his youth, he said:
Sometimes I got lucky and some [work] got selected and I earned a few hundred rupees. Since I was in my 20s and didn’t have any responsibilities I was just happy to be doing what I loved doing best.
In 1963, he went to live in Mussoorie because besides liking the place, it was close to the editors and publishers in Delhi. He edited a magazine for four years. In the 1980s, Penguin set up in India and approached him to write some books. Since 1963 he has lived as a freelance writer in Mussoorie, a town in the Himalayan foothills in Uttarakhand where he lives with his adoptive family in Landour, Mussoorie's Ivy Cottage, which has been his home since 1980. In his essay, "Scenes from a Writer's Life", he explains his Indian identity:
Race did not make me one. Religion did not make me one. But history did. And in the long run, it's history that counts.
Popular Works :
| English Title | Genre | Year | Publishing House |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Room on the Roof | Novel/Fiction | 1956 | Coward-McCann |
| The Blue Umbrella | Novel | 1980 | Rupa & Co. |
| Delhi is not Far | Novel | 1994 | Penguin Random House |
| Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra | Semi-autobiography | 1991 | Penguin Random House |
| Roads to Mussoorie | Fiction | 2005 | Rupa & Co. |
| The Night Train at Deoli | Short story | 1988 | Penguin Random House |
| Angry River | Children's novel | 1972 | Rupa & Co. |
Books :
