In these times of Literature Festivals and the brouhaha that comes with it, Ruskin Bond, an icon of English writing in India, has given us a real reason to celebrate. His collected short stories, “The Adventures of Rusty” (Penguin, Rs. 299), has been released and is already flying off the shelves. For 60 years, he has delighted readers with his stories, intrigued with his style of writing which is simple, and describes the limitless universe of a child.
“Writing comes naturally to me, if I make too much of an effort then it becomes unnatural. My style hasn't changed a great deal from when I first began writing. Between the 1950s and 1970s, I wrote for newspapers besides getting my books published. I began my career as a writer at a time when there were comparatively fewer publishers and hardly any literature festivals.”
Ruskin Bond admits that the protagonist Rusty in “The Adventures of Rusty” has been inspired from ‘Rusty' the lion in the Panchatantra, but it is also the author as a boy. “Rusty's friends and adventures parallel my own experiences as a boy and as a young man. Fact becomes fiction; fiction becomes fact. As in great works like ‘David Copperfield', or ‘Robinson Crusoe' or ‘Huckleberry Finn', they merge into one and create the story of a life.” The book chronicles Rusty's wonderful childhood spent with his grandparents in Dehradun , his journey to London where he becomes a writer and his return back home, which he finds considerably changed.
Ruskin Bond's childhood was quite different from that of Rusty's. “In ‘The Adventures of Rusty' I created a childhood that the readers and I would enjoy. My own childhood was quite a lonely one. It made me thoughtful and I became a writer because of it. My grandfather died when I was a month old. I got to know him from the stories my mother told about him. I have brought him alive in my writing.” Ruskin Bond's vivid descriptions of wild flowers, forests and streams take readers on a journey through forests and unexplored territories. “I love to write on nature and animals, though I have been bitten sometimes and attacked by monkeys,” he laughs. He agrees that there has been a loss in forest cover, but says: “There's still much of it left that can be written about and needs to be preserved for future generations.”
Ruskin Bond has a warm sense of humour, though he admits he doesn't feel humorous all the time. “It is important to have a sense of humour and we need more of it in India. Writers take themselves very seriously. People, in general, have difficulty laughing at themselves. If we did, we would be happier and would be able to get through life without much difficulty.”
The power of the imagination plays an important role in Ruskin Bond's writing. But he is concerned that rapid changes in technology could affect it. “The world has shrunk because of all the advances made in technology. Television brings the best of the world to us, but has taken away the charm of the unexpected. As a child I used to try and imagine what a desert looks like, with palm trees and an oasis. I went to Dubai recently, saw skyscrapers and no people. It looked something out of a science fiction novel. I missed India so much. There were no birds, not even a friendly cow. Even the palm tree I walked up to was artificial.”
One of Ruskin Bond's favourite books is Emily Bronte's “Wuthering Heights”. “I still like going back to old favourites. I read ‘Wuthering Heights' as a boy and loved it. When I picked it up again, many years later, it kept me up all night! I wanted to be a writer even before I finished school. David Copperfield became a role model. I wanted to, like him, run away from home, but I didn't have much pocket money left to do that!”
Ruskin Bond contends that children make adjustments in reading quicker than adults, “they shift from Enid Blyton to Agatha Christie with ease.” But he has some reservations about the Harry Potter phenomenon. “I got scared when I read chapter one of ‘Harry Potter'. I hesitate to kill people. I'd like to give them a certain lease of life and let them enjoy it a bit,” he laughs and concludes.
