I am not talking about the Victorian thinker and art critic John Ruskin but yes, I am talking about the Ruskin who was named by his father after this great Victorian thinker and writer. Yes, friends, it is about Ruskin Bond, the well-known English author, that I wish to speak about.
Bond is synonymous with Mussoorie and the Doon valley as he is the author who has written most profusely about this region which has been home to him for decades and where he spent many years as a child and adolescent. When in school I read Bond’s novellaThe Room on the Roof as a text book, I knew that I would always be a Bond fan. I read the book so many times that I knew it by heart. It had a lot to do with building my interest in reading and writing.
After that, I looked for more books by Bond and began a journey into a world from which I have not returned till today. His book love is a Sad Song had a great impact on me when I read it in college. This novella talks of adolescent love with all its innocence and pathos. And then, during one of my summer vacations in Mussoorie, I finally met the author himself on the Mall Road. Quickly buying one of his books from Cambridge Book Depot, I rushed to get it autographed by him. That moment was so precious! I still get goosebumps when I remember. I still have that hardbound book of poems titled lone Fox Dancing.
After a decade and a half I was to meet Mr Bond again - in the Doon valley. This time I was meeting him as a journalist who had already reviewed a few of his books for national newspapers. When I met him over a cup of coffee and plates of hot pakoras at a small cafeteria on Rajpur Road, it was a beautiful winter morning. Upendra Arora from the Green Bookshop of Doon valley was the host at this little tea party. We talked at length about Bond’s forthcoming books. I can remember clearly, after so many years, that Mr. Bond told me that after he had read my analysis of his works in newspapers, he had expected to be meeting a serious old lady with spectacles and grey hair! That was the beginning of an association which has made me so much more evolved and richer.
Reading and reviewing all his works, learning how to live life simply and joyfully, laughing crazily at the tongue-in-cheek humour in his writing and meeting him often in Doon and Mussoorie –all this has added a wonderful dimension to my life as a person and as a writer. Just observing his simplicity, humility and effortless expression in writing have been great lessons for me. It seems that I have been part of the literary world created by Ruskin Bond ever since I was in school. His works have always been part of my consciousness and deepened my love for the Doon valley which has always been at the core of his writings.
Bond’s love for nature, for the Himalayas, for small towns, for things of the old world, for small railway stations, for walking about the hills, for birds and flowers, for children –all this gives his writing a warm and comforting touch which can make us feel happy in these times of fast-paced living which give us no opportunity to be in touch with ourselves. For all of his fans and admirers, his works provide a treasurehouse of emotions and ideas that have a lasting beauty for their lives. Deceptively simple, his works have a depth that tells us how intense are his feelings for people and things he has loved in life. Books of his which I read as a child held a different meaning for me then. But when I read them later, new meanings and messages emerged from them.
For all of us in Doon and Mussoorie, Mr .Bond’s legacy is invaluable. We all love him greatly, enjoy each of his works, share his love for the valley and the sadness at the great changes that have come about in the valley. He is the benevolent and kind face of our shared emotions, of all the goodness that is threatening to take leave of our city, of our hearts and of our lives. let us cling on !