India has been home to many throughout its long history. Anyone who arrived here found something for themselves. And so was the case with Ruskin Bond.
Born to British parents, Edith Clarke and Aubrey Alexander Bond, in 1934, it wasn’t always clear that Ruskin was going to live in India. Especially after India’s independence in 1947. Although he did go back for a while, in 1951, and lived with his aunt for a while but he came back soon – thankfully – never to leave again.
He started writing very early in his life. A number of short stories that he wrote during his teenage years. He started writing his first novel at the age of seventeen. The Room on the Roof, as it was called, was first published in 1956. It was the semi-autobiographical story of the orphaned Anglo-Indian boy named Rusty (surprise- surprise, the nickname Rusty would go on forever). The book got him huge appreciation and fame. And that was just the beginning.
As soon as he moved to the mountains (Mussoorie), he wrote more and more. Soon, his name became synonymous with books on mountains. He wrote dozens of books, many of them for children, including his own memoirs and autobiographies. Here are some of his most loved works apart from The Room on the Roof:
The Blue Umbrella
Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra
A Flight of Pigeons
Delhi is not Far
A Night Train at Deoli and Other Stories
The Adventures of Rusty
Rain in the Mountains: Notes from Himalayas
At 86, Ruskin Bond continues his writing journey from the Himalayas. It has been a delight to have lived in an era when one could visit any hill station and find his books there.
Kalampedia 