Adventures of Ruskin Bond

Bond has over 150 titles under his belt — many of these penned for children, some are story collections, other memoirs and some poetry too.
Author Ruskin Bond
Author Ruskin Bond

NEW DELHI: One of the most loved authors in the country, Ruskin Bond, started writing when he was 17, a time when he had stepped out of school. Bond, who will turn 86 this May, will be in Delhi once again as a speaker at Arth: A Culture Fest at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. 

Bond has over 150 titles under his belt — many of these penned for children, some are story collections, other memoirs and some poetry too.

“I have been fortunate enough to have made a living from writing. I still write but since I’m old now, I take one day at a time, not bothering too much about tomorrow,” says Bond who writes every morning, for around an hour or two. The rest of the day is spent reading and attending to mails, with some occasional sleep thrown in. Sometimes, he goes out for book promotions or literature festivals as well.

Life as a writer

He recently recorded some of his stories for an audiobook. Over the years, the author has witnessed the profession of a writer undergo a sea change. “When I started writing in the 1950s, there weren’t many book publishers in India, especially the ones catering to fiction or literature. So, I had to write a lot for magazines and newspapers. Of course, there was no visual media back then so a writer became known very much by his name though he/ she didn’t become a semi-celebrity as is the case today. Earlier, it was more or less an anonymous occupation.

Even a successful writer could walk down the street without being recognised. Also, there is a lot of marketing going into the business of book publishing these days,” shares Bond, who got two Padma awards,  Padma Shri in 1999 and Padma Bhushan in 2014.Though a lot has changed, the author has stayed true to his passion of writing, “Things have definitely changed but still stories are stories and mine haven’t changed dramatically over the years. I still write the same way and have more readers now than ever before. At the same time, the reason why more books are being published is because education has spread far and wide. So, even if readers are a minority, the strength is large when it comes to actual numbers,” he adds.

Writing for children

Bond started writing for children when he was around 40 with Angry River in 1972. “At the beginning of my career, even though I was writing for the readers of all ages, a lot of my stories were found suitable for school and college curriculum. It was only in my 40s that I started focussing my writing towards kids. I hope my work has been useful to the children and society at large and has helped some of them become readers/ writers and people have started taking interest in books and broadened their horizons. Adults have already formed their taste but one can help young readers develop taste in books,” says Bond, adding, “Don’t ever stop reading even when you grow up.

My books are not just for children.”Talking about the difference between writing for children and general readers, Bond says, “While writing for kids, you need to have a good story to tell and get into the story as soon as you can without going into description. A young reader will put up with you for a page or two but if you don’t hold their attention, they will put the book aside. An adult, on the other hand, will be more patient, read a couple of chapters before doing so. Also, it is important to give the readers a way to identify with the main character and his or her adventures.”

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The New Indian Express
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