Ruskin Bond S World

ÿRuskin Bond has won the hearts of millions of readers with his countless charming short stories and introspective novels. From biographical tales about acting as a grandfather to children, to tales of unrequited love, the cross-cultural dimensions of Indian society, and the power and beauty of nature, Bond's more than forty novels and short story collections have made him an internationally acclaimed author.ÿ InÿRuskin Bond's World, Indian scholar Gulnaz Fatma, Ph.D. sheds light on one of her country's greatest and most beloved storytellers, tracing the influences in his stories from a childhood in colonial India through his time spent in Britain and his life today among India's hills and mountains. She explores the biographical as well as the imaginary elements of his fiction and explores in detail the themes of nature, children, love, and animals in his novels and short stories. Throughout these pages is revealed Bond's love for humanity in all its variety, from honorable rogues to proud beggars, heartbroken lovers, and wise old men and women.ÿ "Gulnaz has successfully traced major themes in Bond's prolific work under the lenses of her careful examination, proving he is the product of his environment...a sincere study of Ruskin Bond."ÿ --Stephen Gill, Ph.D., author and poet laureate of Ansted Universityÿ "I welcome this long overdue study of one of India's literary shining lights. Ruskin Bond's World opens the door to a deeper understanding of one author's imagination and deepest wisdom."ÿ --Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D. and award-winning author ofÿThe Gothic Wandererÿ Literary Criticism: Asian - Indicÿ www.ModernHistoryPress.comÿ

Ruskin Bond is known internationally as one of India's most prolific writers in English for children, young adults, and adults. This literary biography analyzes the impact of personal, social, geographical, political, and literary influences on Bond's worldview, aesthetic principles, and writings. Connecting the development of Bond's writing career over the past 50 years to the evolution of the publishing industry in India, Khorana details the author's pioneering work in the field of children's and young adult literature, and his contribution to diasporic and postcolonial/post-independence literatures. She concludes that it is Bond's versatile, original, and elegant writing in a variety of genres that continue to endear him to readers around the world. According to the author, despite Bond's British background, he does not write about India from a Eurocentric perspective. Having lived the majority of his life in India, he knows the country as an insider, writing with an authenticity and emotional engagement about the land and the people of the Himalayas and small-town India. Khorana analyzes his novels and short stores, and highlights his juxtaposition of his protagonists' individual dramas against larger social, moral, and metaphysical issues. In addition, she reveals how the autobiographical and regional elements in Bond's work provide 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.

Ruskin Bond, b. 1934, Indo-English litterateur.

One of India's finest and most prolific writers, Ruskin Bond has been putting pen to paper for well over six decades. Since The Room on the Roof-his award-winning debut novel which introduced readers to the unforgettable Rusty, the orphan from Dehradun-Bond has created characters both charming and eccentric, which have endured in popular imagination. And, in what is perhaps his most towering achievement, Bond has brought to pulsing life the mountains, valleys and rivers of Garhwal, as well as the quiet magic of small, tucked-away places, in book after book. The Writer on the Hill is a comprehensive selection of Bond's fiction and non-fiction, both popular and little-known. In 'Masterji', a young man meets his old Hindi teacher on a train platform, in handcuffs. In the excerpt from The Room on the Roof, Rusty stands up to his bullying guardian. 'Man and Leopard' describes, in mesmerizing prose, a heart-breaking encounter between man and the wild. And, in 'Once upon a Mountain Time', Bond creates a charming portrait of his little patch of earth in Mussoorie. A tribute to one of the most popular and loved writers of India, The Writer on the Hill is also a celebration of the quiet, unhurried life, lived at one's own pace. This volume will delight Bond's fans everywhere.

Writing for me is the simplest and greatest pleasure in the world. How to be a Writer is peppered with nuggets of practical advice for every person who is aspiring to write and be published, all told in Ruskin Bond's characteristic understated, tongue-in-cheek, humorous style. So, what is it that a person requires the most to become a writer? A love of books, of language, of life, an observant eye and a good memory along with enthusiasm, optimism and persistence. This book is an exclusive glimpse into the writing credo of Ruskin Bond, an author who has had an incredibly successful writing career spanning over seventy years.

The making of a writer Ruskin Bond's first full-fledged autobiographical book covers his -formative years,' till the age of twenty-one. The world of Anglo-India, with all its conflicting pulls, comes alive as he tells his story. His earliest memoirs are bitter-sweet, and relate to Jamnager where he lives till he is six. The happy hours spent in exploring the Ram Vilas Palace grounds and playing with his younger sister Ellen and the palace children are overshadowed by the acrimonious relation between his parents. Their estrangement while he is still a child leaves him with a life-long sense of insecurity. His unhappiness is exacerbated by the untimely death of his father " his emotional anchor when the author is just ten. Forced to stay with his mother and his stepfather, both of whom are absorbed in their own worlds, he tries to fend off his loneliness through books and the company of a few friends. Left for the most part to himself, the gentle dreamer realizes very early as -a pimply adolescent' his calling as a writer. His first book, The Room on the Roof, materializes in England, the land of his forefathers, where he is sent to make a career for himself. Despite the unexpected success of his novel, which wins a major British literary prize, the author's yearning for India is too powerful to let him remain abroad for long. He returns and begins a writing career which has spanned four decades, and earned him a place in the pantheon of great Indian writers.