Dehradun, A verdant garden in bloom, birds chirping in the backdrop, a warm sun making its way across the horizon and lots of children of course. India’s favourite author is 92 and the celebration could not have been more Ruskin Bond-ish – wisdom and wit wrapped into one perfect afternoon.
Recovering from a spinal surgery and confined to a wheelchair, he is frail but the zest is intact as he regales his audience with stories about the time he had 20 aloo tikkis, his abiding love for India, friendship and going gently into old age. Moving seamlessly from one mood to another. Quite like his books.
“When I was a boy in Dehradun I used to go to the chaat corner at the clock tower and I would eat golgappas, tikkis and chaat. AIso, I had the record for some time for eating the largest number of tikkis. I ate 20 tikkis in one go and I’m still alive,” Bond, who turns 92 on Tuesday, told PTI, chuckling as he went back in time.
Few writers can boast 75 years of storytelling, over 500 published works and generations of devoted readers, fewer still can laugh about it with Bond’s trademark ease.
The birthday this time is in Dehradun for health reasons, away from his home Ivy Cottage in misty Landour higher up in the Uttarakhand hills.
The launch of his latest book “All-Time Favourite Friendship Stories” last week doubled as a warm pre-birthday gathering. Dressed in a light pink T-shirt, birthday boy Bond basked in the sunshine and affection of admirers.
Asked which character from his literary world he would invite to celebrate his 92nd birthday, the reply was prompt. His best friend Somi from “The Room on the Roof”, his debut book in 1956 when he was just 17.
“I haven’t seen him for many many years. I wish he was here, and we’d have a great time,” he smiled.
Somi is a warm-hearted Sikh boy who acts as devoted best friend to Rusty Bond’s semi-autobiographical alter-ego especially in “The Room on the Roof”.
The celebrated writer is unabashed about his love for India. And if there is one piece of advice the storyteller wants his young readers to carry into adulthood, it is this: go wherever life takes you, but always come back to India.
“… because India is your heart and soul. I left India when I was 17, and I came back three or four years later because I knew I wasn’t going to be happy in the West, and my heart and soul was here, and I missed everything about India. Not just people or places, but the atmosphere,” he told excited students, many clutching greeting cards, eagerly waiting for a photo or a signed copy of his book.
“… An atmosphere that you won’t find anywhere else, because India is so varied and yet, in spite of all those differences, you are cohesive, you come together as one, as one great being, not just a nation, but a continent, a double nation, a nation within nations,” Bond added.
His literary career began not from ambition, but from an inability to survive chemistry, maths, and physics, Bond joked.
“I was about 16 or 17 when I started writing here in Dehradun. I had just finished school and believed I was good at english, history, and geography. But I must admit, I couldn’t pass maths, physics, or chemistry. So I thought the wisest thing to do was become a writer. And that’s how I began writing stories,” he said.
Born to British parents Edith Clarke and Aubrey Bond in 1934 in Kasauli, Bond was only four when his mother separated from his father and married an Indian.
Though Bond’s custody was handed to his father, he soon relocated to his grandmother’s house in Dehradun. He grew up in Jamnagar, Shimla, New Delhi, and Dehradun before finally making Landour his home in 1963.
He has received numerous awards and honours, including the Sahitya Akademi Award for English writing in 1992, the Padma Shri in 1999, the Padma Bhushan in 2014 and the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 2021.
Cutting into a bright yellow-and-blue cake inspired by the whimsical cover of “All-Time Favourite Friendship Stories”, complete with playful illustrations and a smiling portrait of himself at his writing desk, the ever-smiling Bond reflected on ageing not with complaint but with gratitude and grace.
Even as he recovers from surgery, relearns how to walk, and adjusts to dictating stories to his granddaughter, Shristi, instead of writing them by hand due to his fading eyesight, Bond remains philosophical about ageing and chooses to dwell on its “compensations” rather than its hardships.
“You have your memories, you appreciate the world around you even more because you know you’ve only got it for a short time… time is limited, so you must make use of it,” he said.
Undercutting the profundity with humour, Bond added that he has been keeping busy but not working too hard. Tongue firmly in cheek, he said he has never been a fan of “overwork”, right from his debut novel 70 years ago.
All these decades later, Bond’s spirit remains high. His latest, Penguin Random House India’s latest installment in the “All-time Favourite” Bond series focuses on friendship.
Ranging from “The Playing Fields of Simla” and “Rusty and Somi” to “The Hidden Pool” and “Two Boys and a Tiger”, the book brings together 25 touching tales that explore friendship in all its “wonderful and surprising forms”.
“All-Time Favourite Friendship Stories”, priced at ₹399, is currently available for purchase across online and offline stores.
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