A lot has been written about Ruskin Bond, our very own Indian writer, whose writing s span over 50 years. His versatile, original and elegant style of writing has made him a favourite to readers around the world.
Despite Bond's British background, he writes about India as an insider’s perspective. Having lived the majority of his life in India, he knows the country well and writes an authenticity and emotional engagement about the land and the people of the Himalayas and small-town India. His novels and short stores, highlights individual dramas against larger social, moral, and metaphysical issues. In addition,his work provides an insight into universal themes such as the tension between past and present, city life versus rural values, the dignity of ordinary folk, preservation of the environment, and living in harmony with nature.
Once Ruskin had commented "The India I Love, does not make the headlines, but I find it wherever I go – in field or forest, town or village, mountain or desert – and in the hearts and minds of people who have given me love and affection for the better part of my lifetime."
Life and works of Ruskin Bond
Bond was born in a military hospital in Kasauli,of Edith Clerke and Aubrey Bond. Bond spent his early childhood in Jamnagar and Shimla. At the age of ten Ruskin went to live at his grandmother's house in Dehradun after his father's sudden death in 1944 from malaria. Ruskin was raised by his mother. He completed his schooling at Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, from where he graduated in 1952. Ruskin’s love for books and writing came early to him since his father had surrounded him with books and encouraged him to write little descriptions of nature and he took his son on hikes in the hills.
After his high school education he spent four years in England. In London he wrote his first novel, The Room on the Roof, the story of the orphaned Anglo-Indian boy Rusty. It won the 1957 John Llewellyn Rhys prize.He used the advance