Renowned English author Ruskin Bond had a special Christmas today as he received a copy of his latest work from the publishers.
The latest work is ‘Tales of Fosterganj’, a novel written by Bond about a charming Himalayan hamlet which he loves. “Actually Fosterganj is Barlowganj near Mussooie disguised as a fictional place,” Bond told The Pioneer. “There are more than a dozen chapters and they all are interlinked,” said the author who has been attending literature festivals in Dubai and Mumbai.
“I am back in landour and enjoying the weather. It is not all that cold yet and I can go around doing my work at home and also go to Cambridge Book Depot where I meet my readers from various parts of the country and even abroad,” Bond said. Tales of Fosterganj has several characters whom the author met and knew in the 60s in Barlowganj. The novel is also set in the 1960s.
In the novel, the narrator says, “I forget what took me to Fosterganj in the first place. Destiny, perhaps; although I’m not sure why destiny would have bothered to guide an itinerant writer to an obscure little hamlet in the hills. Chance would be a better word. For chance plays a great part in all our lives. And it was just by chance that I found myself in the Fosterganj bazaar one fine morning early in May.”
Barlowganj is four kilometers from Mussooie and falls in Pauri district. It has the well-known St.George’s School and Jaypee Residency Manor now. So it is not such a sleepy hamlet as it once was. The book has been published by Aleph Book Company. The author wished all his readers a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.