“If you want to write stories now, don’t put your teachers in them. For, I have had pretty bad experiences myself which goes back to my school days around the time of Independence when I was 10 years old. My first little story, which had some disparaging remarks about the principal, was confiscated and torn to pieces, never seeing the light of the day. So play safe,” advised India’s most lovable writer Ruskin Bond, as the hall burst into laughter.
The second day of the first Odisha Literary Festival 2012 was set in motion by the celebrated writer, who in his own inimitable style of simplicity laced with wit and humour, held the over 500 children in a state of absolute attention doling out pearls of wisdom on life, writing and literature.