Ruskin Bond

 

Ruskin Bond

Ruskin Bond (born 19, May 1934) is an Indian author. His first novel, The Room on the Roof, published in 1956, received the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Bond has authored more than 500 short stories, essays, and novels which includes 69 books for children. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1992 for Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and Padma Bhushan in 2014.

Life: Ruskin Bond was born on 19 May 1934  in Kasauli, Punjab States Agency, British India. His father, Aubrey Alexander Bond, who was British, was born in a military camp in Shahjahanpur, a small town in north India. His mother, Edith Clarke, was Anglo-Indian.

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 Mussoorie. He was very close to his father and describes this period (1942–1944) with his father as one of the happiest times of his life. When he was ten, his father died due to malaria, while he was posted in Calcutta. He was buried in the Bhowanipore War Cemetery 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 in Dehradun.

He attended Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, graduating in 1951. He won several writing competitions in the school including the Irwin Divinity Prize and the Hailey Literature Prize. He wrote one of his first short stories, "Untouchable", at the age of sixteen in 1951.

Following his high school education he went to his aunt's home in the Channel Islands in 1951 for better prospects and stayed there for two years. In London when he was 17 years old, he started writing his first novel, The Room on the Roof, the semi-autobiographical story of the orphaned Anglo-Indian boy named Rusty; he did various jobs for a living. It won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, (1957) awarded to a British Commonwealth writer under 30. He moved to London and worked in a photo studio while searching for a publisher. After getting it published, Bond used the advance money to pay the sea passage to Bombay and settle 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. He had written Vagrants in the Valley in 1956, as an sequel to The Room on the Roof. These two novels were published in one volume by Penguin India in 1993. The following year a collection of his non-fiction writings, The Best of Ruskin Bond was published by Penguin India. His interest in supernatural fiction led him to write popular titles such as Ghost Stories from the Raj, A Season of Ghosts, and A Face in the Dark and other Hauntings. Since then he has written over five hundred short stories, essays and novels, including The Blue Umbrella, Funny Side Up, A Flight of Pigeons (Hindi film junoon was based on this story) and more than 50 books for children. He has also published his autobiography: Scenes from a Writer's Life describes his formative years growing up in Anglo-India and a further autobiography, Lone Fox Dancing, was published in 2017. The Lamp is Lit is a collection of essays and episodes from his journal.

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.  Asked what he likes the most about his life, he said, "That I have been able to write for so long. I started at the age of 17 or 18 and I am still writing. If I were not a professional writer who was getting published I would still write."

Writing life: Most of his works are influenced by life in the hill stations at the foothills of the Himalayas, where he spent his childhood. The Room on the Roof, was written when he was 17 and published when he was 22. It was partly based on his experiences at Dehradun, in his small rented room on the roof, and his friends. His earlier works were written without it being meant for any particular readership. His first children's book, Angry River, published in 1972, had its writing toned down on a publisher's request for a children's story. On writing for children, he said, "I had a pretty lonely childhood and it helps me to understand a child better."  Bond's work reflects his Anglo-Indian experiences and the changing political, social and cultural aspects of India, having been through colonial, postcolonial and post-independence phases of India.

Ruskin Bond said that while his autobiographical work, Rain in the Mountains, was about his years spent in Mussoorie, Scenes from a Writer's Life described his first 21 years. Scenes from a Writer's Life focuses 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".

Being a writer for over 50 years, Bond experimented with different genres; early works include fiction, short stories, novella with some being autobiographical. Later, he tried out non-fiction, romance and books for children. He said his favourite genres are essays and short stories. He considers himself a "visual writer" because for short stories, he first imagines it like a film and then notes it down. For an essay or travelogue, such planning is not needed for him. He feels the unexpected there makes it more exciting. Bond likes Just William by Richmal Crompton, Billy Bunter by Charles Hamilton and classics such as Alice in Wonderland and works by Charles Dickens and Mark Twain.

Filmography : The 1978 Bollywood film Junoon is based on Bond's novel A Flight of Pigeons (about an episode during the Indian Rebellion of 1857). It was produced by Shashi Kapoor and directed by Shyam Benegal.

 The Rusty stories have been adapted into a Doordarshan TV series Ek Tha Rusty. Several stories have been incorporated into the school curriculum in India, including The Night Train at Deoli, Time Stops at Shamli and Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra.

In 2005, the Bollywood director Vishal Bhardwaj made a film based on his popular novel for children, The Blue Umbrella. The movie won the National Film Award for Best Children's Film.

Rusty: Rusty was based on Ruskin Bond himself as a teenager. His first book, The Room on the Roof, which he wrote at the age of 17, was a semi-autobiographical story with Rusty being the protagonist. It was based on his friends and the time he spent in a rented room, when he was in Dehradun. Most of Rusty's initial years are set in the location of Dehradun, a scenic place in northern India. Ruskin Bond was deeply attached to Dehra and most of his stories are inspired by the hills and valleys of this region.

 Novels and short stories featuring Rusty:

* The Room on the Roof

• Vagrants in the Valley (a sequel to Room on the Roof)
• Rusty, the Boy from the Hills (collection of short stories)
• Rusty Runs Away (collection of short stories)
• Rusty and the Magic Mountain
• Rusty goes to London
• Rusty Comes Home
• The Adventures of Rusty (collection of short stories)
• Delhi is not far
• Rusty plays Holi
• Rusty and the leopard

Novels

• The Room on the Roof
• Vagrants in the Valley
• Rusty Runs Away
• A Flight of Pigeons
• The Sensualist
• The Panther's Moon
• Once Upon A Monsoon Time
• Delhi is Not Far
• Angry River
• The Woman on Platform 8
• Strangers in the Night
• All Roads Lead To Ganga
• Tales of Fosterganj
• Maharani
• Leopard on the Mountain
• Grandfather's Private Zoo
• The Blue Umbrella
• Too Much Trouble
• When The Tiger Was King
• Cherry Tree
• The Great Train Journey
• Children Of India
• Owls In The Family
• Dust On The Mountain
• The Adventures Of Toto
• The House Of Strange Stories'
• Big Business
• When the Night Falls
• The Season of Ghost

Memories

• Landour Day – A writer Journal
• Scenes from a Writer's Life
• With Love From The Hills
• Roads To Mussoorie
• Looking for the Rainbow
• Till the Clouds Roll By
• Coming Round the Mountain
• A Song of India
• All the roads lead to Ganga

Non-fiction

• It's a Wonderful Life: Roads to Happiness
• A Golf Story: Celebrating 125 Years of the Bangalore Golf Club
• Happy Birthday, World!

Thief’s Story

 The story "The Thief's Story" by Ruskin Bond is part of the book Footprints without Feet. The story The Thief’s story by Ruskin Bond is focused on the topics of friendship, treachery, aspirations, connection, trust, guilt, change, kindness, loyalty, retribution, and honesty. The plot of the narrative is built on the idea that kindness and love have the power to change even the worst crooks and thieves on this harsh planet.

Meanings:

Lean– thin
Flattery– excessive and insincere praise
Modestly– in an unassuming manner; without vanity or arrogance.
Employers– a person or organization that employs people.
Grunting- make a low, short guttural sound.
Appealing- attractive or interesting.

Misjudged– form a wrong opinion or conclusion about.
Balcony– a platform enclosed by a wall or balustrade on the outside of a building, with access from an upper-floor window or door.
Terrible- extremely bad or serious.
Patted- touch quickly and gently with the flat of the hand.
Pleasant– giving a sense of happy satisfaction or enjoyment.
Supplies– a stock or amount of something supplied or available for use.

Fits and Starts- not working on something consistently
Borrow– take and use (something belonging to someone else) with the intention of returning it.
Lend– grant to (someone) the use of (something) on the understanding that it will be returned.
Queer– strange; odd.
Bundle- a collection of things or quantity of material tied or wrapped up together.
Tuck– push, fold, or turn (the edges or ends of something, especially a garment or bedclothes) so as to hide or secure them.
Line of work–  the principal activity in your life that you do to earn money
Beam– a ray or shaft of light.
Crept– move slowly and carefully in order to avoid being heard or noticed.
Drew- pull or drag
Sighed- emit a long, deep audible breath expressing sadness, relief, tiredness.
Startled- feeling or showing sudden shock or alarm.

Dashed- Quickly ran towards something
Carriages– any of the separate sections of a train that carry passengers.
Hesitated- pause in indecision before saying or doing something.
Deserted- (of a place) empty of people.
Curious– eager to know or learn something.
Robbed- take property unlawfully from (a person or place) by force or threat of force.
Bazaar– market
Maidan- a park

Shelter– a place giving temporary protection from bad weather or danger.
Clock Tower– a tower, typically forming part of a church or civic building, with a large clock at the top.
Midnight- twelve o’clock at night.
Damp- slightly wet.
Cinema- a theatre where films are shown for public entertainment.
Hurried- done in a hurry; rushed.
Undetected- not detected or discovered.
Clouded- make or become less clear or transparent

Ruskin Bond
Born	19 May 1934 (age 90) Kasauli, Punjab States Agency, British India (Now in Solan district, Himachal Pradesh, India)
Occupation	Author poet
Language	English
Alma mater	Bishop Cotton School
Notable works	The Room on the Roof Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra A Flight of Pigeons The Blue Umbrella Granny's Tree Climbing Angry River
Notable awards	John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (1957) Sahitya Akademi Award (1992) Padma Shri (1999) Padma Bhushan (2014)