Few writers are loved as much in India as Ruskin Bond. The famous children’s writer has spent much of his life in the Himalayas. Born to an English couple in the British India, the 17-year-old Ruskin Bond had to go back to England in 1951. It was while he was in England, though, in the jostle and drizzle of London, that he missed the Himalayas the most. He writes about this experience in his book Himalaya: Adventures, Meditations, Life.
It was always the same with mountains. Once you have lived with them for any length of time, you belong to them. There is no escape.
Ruskin Bond
In London, the young Ruskin began to relate everything with the Himalayas. The fog became a mountain mist, and the book of the traffic became the boom of the Ganges emerging from the foothills.
He remembered and he remembered everything — the smell of pine needles, the silver of oak leaves, the red of maple, the call of the Himalayan cuckoo, and of course the mist, like a wet facecloth, pressing against the hills. All the smells and sounds and sights of the Himalayas came rushing back to Ruskin Bond and he knew… he knew that he had to go back. And so he did.
Years later, after having written and published dozens and dozens of books, he continues to write. Among the current fraternity of writers, he must be a rare one who actually writes by hand. “Armed with pencils and paper,” he says, “I can lie on the grass and write for hours. Provided there are a couple of cheese and tomato sandwiches within easy reach.”
That’s what you call a life well lived. Those of us who romanticise the idea of writing, would find an envious joy in seeing the kind of life Ruskin Bond has lived and continues to live. May he go on!
Kalampedia 