{"id":343,"date":"2014-05-19T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-19T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/on-this-day\/19-may-1934-ruskin-bond-indian-author-was-born\/"},"modified":"2014-05-19T10:30:00","modified_gmt":"2014-05-19T10:30:00","slug":"19-may-1934-ruskin-bond-indian-author-was-born","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/on-this-day\/19-may-1934-ruskin-bond-indian-author-was-born","title":{"rendered":"19 May 1934: Ruskin Bond, Indian author, was born"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAn examination of Bond\u2019s life and work affords insight not only into his evolution as a writer but also his contribution to the development of English literature in India and to the growing body of diasporic and post-colonial\/post-independence literature.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

~ Meena Khorana, Indian author and biographer, in her book <\/span><\/span><\/span>The Life and Works of Ruskin Bond.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Ruskin Bond is considered as one of the greatest Indian authors of the English language. His wide array of short stories, novels, essays, poems, travelogues, and articles in newspapers and magazines have inspired many a aspiring writers for the past six decades. Best known as a children\u2019s story writer, Ruskin Bond has dabbled in a variety of genres, from ghost stories to \u2018odes to nature\u2019 to unrequited love stories. His writing career brought him fame, honours and a number of awards, including the Sahitya Academy Award (1992), Padma Shri (1991), Padma Bhushan (2014).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ruskin Bond\u2019s Life and Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Born to Anglo-Indian parents, Aubrey Alexander Bond and Edith Dorothy Clerke, on 19 May 1934 in Kasauli, Ruskin Bond had a less than normal childhood as other Anglo-Indian kids of his age. By the age of ten, Bond had experienced living with princes and princesses in Jamnagar (Gujarat), studying in a boarding school in Dehradun, watching his parents separated and divorced, and finding out about his father’s death, while he was in school. All these experiences influenced his stories throughout his life. His most loved childhood experiences stem from his father\u2019s nurturing affection, his motherly <\/span><\/span><\/span>ayah<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span>, his gardener named Dukhi, and the thousands of books he read. The first book he ever read was <\/span><\/span><\/span>Alice in Wonderland<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em>, which still remains his favourite. Other preferred authors included Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens, Emily Bronte, Graham Greene, and Agatha Christie. All the incidents collectively marked a significant impression on Bond\u2019s young mind.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ruskin Bond was well-known in his school, Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, as a great debater, athlete, and writer. Even though, he was an average student in terms of academics, his writing talent was recognised as early as 1948, when he won the Anderson Essay Prize. He won the same award for three consecutive years, the only student to do so in the history of the school. His name is in fact, inscribed in the literary and academic Hall of Fame of the school. Apart from writing, Bond also won several trophies for his goal-keeping prowess in the school\u2019s football team.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After completing his schooling, Bond went to England for further education. It was there that he completed and published his first novel, <\/span><\/span><\/span>The Room on the Roof<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em>. This won him the John Llewelyn Rhys Memorial Prize (1957).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Bond spent four years in England, but his heart was back in India, where he was born and had spent some of his dearest days. He decided to return. According to him, he felt more comfortable around \u201cpeepal trees\u201d on the slopes than \u201capple orchards\u201d on the countryside, and he was more attracted to a life with the Indian masses, than the sophistication of British citizens. In his essay, On Being an Indian<\/em>, he describes his relationship with India as one with \u201chistory\u201d and not with \u201crace\u201d or \u201creligion\u201d.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Author and his Writing Influences<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ruskin Bond in the past six decades of his writing career has more than 500 published works in his name. Many of his stories were initially published in newspapers and magazines. He is also one of the few authors in India whose stories are compiled and re-compiled into anthologies and collections. Many of his stories are part of the school syllabus. Once, when he was asked how he reacted when children came and told him that they read his stories in their textbooks, he jokingly replied he would apologise to them!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

His most renowned works include the following:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n