Today, May 19, is a joyous occasion for all Ruskin Bond fans, young and old, across the globe. It is the renowned author’s eighty second birthday and a wonderful reason for celebrations, especially in Mussoorie which has been his home for the past fifty three years.
It is indeed an occasion of great joy for all the generations of readers who have loved the author and his creations, reading and re-reading more than a hundred books he has penned in his personal and subjective style.
The author is now busy working on his Memoirs. Readers will get to know a lot more about his life from this work.
Bond’s connection with Mussoorie started early. His parents first met each other in this hill station. And the first school which Ruskin attended was the Convent of Jesus and Mary at Hampton Court in Mussoorie where he was placed in the boarding. He was not happy in the school and soon left it to go to Delhi and live with his father, Aubrey Bond, in temporary wartime hutments as his father had joined the RAF. He then went to Bishop Cotton School in Shimla. He passed out of school in 1951 and began submitting stories to magazines.
Born in Kasauli in 1934, Ruskin joined his father at Jamnagar when he was a year old. Ruskin spent many a holiday at the Doon valley residence of his maternal grandfather,William Dudley Clerke, who was one of the early pioneers who helped bring the railways to Dehra Dun.
I have had the good fortune of knowing the writer, both as a reader and as a journalist, for the past many years. This “Grand Old Writer on the Hill” is one of the best human beings I have ever met. As good and as simple as his stories. As unassuming as anyone can ever be. In fact, as good as gold. People in Doon and Mussoorie who have known him closely will vouch for this.
luckily for his readers, Bond can never stop writing. He says he always gets the feeling that time is getting shorter and he needs to write many a story more, many a new book. “And then there are people who come and ask me, “Mr Bond, are you still writingIJ”. If birds can ever stop singing, only then can writers stop writing. I cannot understand why people ask such questions. Writers never retire.”
looking back at his life, he says he is grateful to God that he gave him a long writing life. “I have no regrets in life. I have been writing for sixty five years and making a living out of it! I really feel blessed as I have lived the life I wanted to.”
The relationship between the author and the Doon valley goes back to his childhood in the 1940s when he spent quite a lot of time here with his maternal grandparents who had a lovely bungalow on Old Survey Road. He has narrated in innumerable works his memories of his days spent in the valley as a child and then as a young man, taking up freelance writing as his profession.
For more than five decades now, Bond has been living in Mussoorie but his love for the Doon valley has never lost its intensity. And he has mentioned in his work how the valley had a great contribution towards making him the author and the person he is. His love affair with Dehra Dun has continued all his life and even today, when he sees that the town has changed dramatically, he says that he has too many memories of this place to ever stop loving it.
He lived in a room at Astley Hall for quite some time before he moved to Mussoorie. And it was this room which gave him the freedom which he loves, the independence that he has always cherished. This strong desire for freedom - to live as he wishes, to do what he wishes to, to write when he desires to -is expressed very well in his writing.
For more than six decades, Bond has been writing tirelessly, dedicating his life to creating a world which has been enchanting generations of readers. His readers span different ages as he has a deep understanding of the human heart and mind combined with a modern sensibility. For each new generation, the works remain as fresh as they were when first written.
Here’s wishing this wonderful author and great human being many more happy birthdays and many more books to be written to make his readers happy.