The second day of Jharkhand Literary Meet–2018 filled with exhilaration took the audiences to the world of classic literary works, where noted authors, artists yet again expounded on various issues and revealed about their journey.
The celebrated author of children classics – Ruskin Bond spoke his heart out during the conversation with the audiences ‘Growing up with Ruskin’ on Sunday. The writer who penned down a number of books capturing the innocence of childhood days coalescing it with the majestic beauty and serene environment of hillocks asserted that the progress of children is based on what they read, write and understand in their early days on specifically speaking about focusing on kids while writing a novel.
Bond who started jotting down his own experiences since his early teenage days admitted that writing for children is difficult as one has to grab their attention in the page one itself. “Till the age of 21, I used to write only for the general readers, later as time flew, I realised that if my writing can give pleasure to elderly people than why not children. In my mid 30’s, I started writing for children and has been enjoying doing so even now,” added Bond going down the memory lane.
Further, walking to transition, the noted writer added that through fictional work attempts must be made to present a positive view of life to children. Bond – the writer, in the presence of several audiences stated that he too grew reading nursery rhymes, children classic like Alice in Wonderland, stories and essays of Charles Dickens and so on; hence, more than orating, he likes to express his views through writing.
On the query, how he maintains innocence in his writing without being cynical, Bond thanked the almighty for blessing him with mystical innocence, well-depicted in all his literary collections. Rusty who believes in subjective writing pointed out that there is no dearth of topics but during the creative process, he enjoys writing for kids, taking inspiration from his life and surroundings.
He also spoke about his ‘Dream Book’ where he records all his dreams by putting in writing without analysing its fact. In addition, while answering about his favourite literary work, collection or essay, Bond further stated, “A writer always aim for perfection and cannot retire. Terming any collection of his work ‘favourite’ cannot do justice in any way. Every book of mine is favourite.”
On the popular demand of the audiences, Bond cooked up a ‘Ghost Story’ in his signature style and received applaud from the audiences. He advised the aspiring writers to respect the language, s/he plans to write. Bond seemed pretty comfortable about the adaptation of novel into films. Several books of Bond have been adapted for the visual medium - movies and telefilms.
“When sensitive filmmakers adapt your stories, you know that they are going to do justice but undoubtedly there are high chances as well where the essence of the story is lost while attempting to recreate it into other mediums,” he added. The session concluded with Bond sharing his desire to write couple of plays for theater, which earlier was not so dominant in India.
During the inaugural session – ‘The Wonder Years’, writers Malay Roy and Abdullah Khan discussed their debut novels based in this region. The event which concluded on a high note witnessed the participation of Rajya Sabha MP, Harivansh who interacted with the audiences during the session ‘On the importance of the Mahatma 150 years after his birth’.
The session ‘EK Shaam Kavita Ke Naam’ featured ace music composer Niranjan Iyengar, Hussain Haidry, Anuj Lugun, Chandramohan Kisku and Nirmala Putul. Similarly, during the session ‘Yeh Kaun Chitrakar Hai’ – Prakriti aur Adivasi Sahitya, writers Mahadev Toppo, Chandramohan Kisku, Anuj Lugun including Mohua Maji put forward their views in conversation with Vinoy Bhushan.
Bringing down the curtain, Music Composer Vidya Shah and Radio Presenter Sayema Rehman relived the times and magic of Begum Akhtar - a Hindustani classical singer of dadra, thumri and ghazals and cited as ‘one of India’s finest ghazal singers’.
Literary meet -1 : Eminent writer Ruskin Bond addresses at the concluding day of second edition of the ‘Jharkhand Literary Meet’ at Audrey House in Ranchi on Sunday. Pix by Vinay Murmu