Ruskin Bond

Ruskin Bond
Ruskin Bond, born 19 May 1934 in Kasauli Distt Solan, is an Indian author of Britishdescent.[1] He is considered to be an icon among Indian writers and children's authors and a top novelist.In 1992 he received the Sahitya Akademi award for English writing, for his short stories collection, "Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra", by the Sahitya Academy, India's National Academy of Literature[2]. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 for contributions to children's literature. He now lives with his adopted family in Landour near Mussoorie.His father was with the Royal Air Force in India. He has one sister and brother, Ellen Bond and William Bond. When Bond was four years old, his mother was separated from his father and married a Punjabi-Hindu, Mr. Hari, who himself had been married once.When he was ten years old Ruskin went to his grandmother's house in Dehradun (he called her the "Culcatta Granny") because of his father's sudden death due to frequent bouts of malaria and jaundice.After his High School education in Shimla he spent four years in England. In London he started writing his first novel, The Room on the Roof, the semi-autobiographical story of the orphaned Anglo-Indian boy Rusty. Bond used the advance money which he got for this book to pay the sea passage to Bombay. He worked for some years as a journalist in Delhi and Dehradun. Since 1963 he has lived as a freelance writer in Mussoorie, a town in the Himalayan foothills.[3]Most of Bond's writings show a very strong influence from the social life in the hill stations at the foothills of the Himalayas, where he spent his childhood. His first novel, "The Room On the Roof", was written when he was 17 and published when he was 21. It was partly based on his experiences at Dehra, in his small rented room on the roof, and his friends. The "Room On the Roof" brought him the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1957. Since then he has written over three hundred short stories, essays and novels (including "Vagrants in The Valley","The Blue Umbrella", "Funny Side Up"[4] and "A Flight of Pigeons") and more than 30 books for children. He has also published two volumes of autobiography. "Scenes from a Writer's Life", which describes his formative years growing up in Anglo-India, and "The Lamp is Lit", a collection of essays and episodes from his journal.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 can not be missed in his 100 something short stories, essays, novels, and more than thirty books of children that he has written.Bond said that while his earlier autobiographical work, "Rain in the Mountains", was about his long years spent in Mussoorie, "Scenes from a Writer's Life" described his first 21 years. "Looking back, I find that those earlier years of my life have more incidents resulting from youthful enthusiasm," said the writer. "Two-thirds of the book talks about my life in Dehra Dun as a young boy," he added. Now he lives with his adopted family in Ladour, Mussoorie. "Scenes from a Writer's Life" dwells on Bond's trip to England, his struggle to find a publisher for his first book "The Room on the Roof" and his yearning to come back to India, particularly to Doon. "It also tells a lot about my parents," said Bond. "The book ends with the publication of my first novel and my decision to make writing my livelihood," Bond said, adding, "Basically it describes how I became a writer. In 1987, the Indian Council for Child Education recognized his pioneering role in the growth of children's literature in India, and awarded him the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1992 for Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra. He won the Padma Shri in 1999.Based on Bond's historical novella A Flight of Pigeons (about an episode during the Indian Rebellion of 1857) the Hindi film Junoon was produced in 1978 by Shashi Kapoor (directed by Shyam Benegal). Ruskin Bond made his maiden foray on the big screen with a cameo inVishal Bhardwaj's film 7 Khoon Maaf, based on his short story Susanna's Seven Husbands. Bond appears as a Bishop in the movie withPriyanka Chopra, who kills "each of her seven husbands".[5] Bond had earlier collaborated with him in the The Blue Umbrella which was also based on his story.