Ruskin Bond: “Life is just a game of chance”

I look back with great gratitude because I was not always a popular writer. In the early years of my writing career, books did not sell very well. You could pick them up for a buck or two off the sidewalk in the 1960s and 70s, when I brought out little collections of stories that are now in books and selling very well. I think life is just a game of chance. Life gives, and takes, and gives again. This is what happened to me. I have seen the best and worst of times. And I’m having a good time again, because now I have a lot of readers. I write so that people can read me, so I am happy. But I am greedy for more readers.

What helped you remain calm and patient during difficult times?

The fact that I enjoyed writing really helped. And as long as I kept writing and publishing, I sometimes didn’t care whether the books were selling or not. For the first 10 years, I wrote almost entirely as a freelancer for magazines and newspapers because there were not many publishers in India at that time. The books I wrote came much later.

In the 1950s and early ’60s, I had a Sunday column Hindustan Times. I used to come to Delhi office after writing my column in advance and hand it over to the features editor. We would sit over a cup of tea and chat for a bit. Those were the days when you had time to gossip. And if there was any weird fan letter he would show it to me. But he didn’t want the praise to go to my head. So, he only showed me one or two, he didn’t show them all. He thought I would be too arrogant. (laughs) In those days you had to be polite. I was always polite, I have to admit. And I’m still quite humble. I know I’m not a great writer. I’m just a writer.

There are many people who feel forced to give up their love of writing because it pays so little. How have you dealt with this challenge?

When times were really tough, I took up odd jobs. I was always ready to work because I had to earn. I never received financial support from family or anyone else. I’ve worked at a grocery store, a photo studio, a travel agency, and a public health department. I edited a magazine called Imprint for a few years. It was produced in Bombay but I worked from Mussoorie. Before settling in Mussoorie, I was a freelancer in Dehradun and Delhi. I also wrote a promotional blurb for an international relief agency called CARE. I left it to write my own stories.

In your new book you write about the Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere (CARE) Magic Mountain Views: Five Seasons in the Mussoorie Hills and Beyond. How did that job bring you closer to the Tibetan refugee community?

Dalai Lama came to India in 1959. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that they were brought to India by the Chinese, who had occupied and claimed Tibet as their own. The Dalai Lama and his followers first settled in Mussoorie and later in Dharamshala. My job with CARE was to visit all the Tibetan refugee centers in India, and report what they needed not in food but in things they could use – handlooms to make carpets, and desks for children.

I was sent to Mussoorie in 1963, and the assignment was to write about CARE’s relief program for Tibetan children, whose education was being sponsored at the Weinberg Allen School. I traveled to Dharamshala, Darjeeling, Dalhousie and Coorg and to Bylakuppe on the border of Mysore, where Khampa refugees from Tibet were settled. I remember it was very hot there when I went there to see them. They were walking bare chested, which was something they had never done before during their lives in Tibet, where it was so cold that no one often took off their clothes. He had to adapt to the weather and performed very well.

Interestingly, the first director of CARE engaged me because he had actually read my novel. rooftop room. It was published just three years before I started working with CARE.

I did not interact with the Dalai Lama but I attended ceremonies at which he was present and spoke. But I knew his sister (Jasten Pema, who headed the Tibetan Children’s Villages school system for four decades). We used to meet on Dharamshala tour. She did not present herself much to the public but did a lot for Tibetan refugees and spoke beautiful English. There is a beautiful picture of one of our meetings in my autobiography, named lone fox dancing.

Like you, another person of British origin, Freda Bedi, was involved in relief work in Tibetan refugee camps. Did you also meet this social worker, who later became a nun?

Yes, I remember Freda Bedi well. She was deeply involved in helping Tibetans, and not just as a professional act. She was concerned about them, and cared for them on a personal basis. Some Tibetan children also lived with them. His son, Kabir Bedi, who became famous as an actor in later years, was a small boy at that time. She had a house in Delhi, and would travel to refugee camps from there. I met him many times. She was a hospitable woman. I remember her as a warm, friendly person who loved to talk about what she was doing for them. She was a doer, not just a talker. His work aroused great interest and much was written about him. But I didn’t know that she had become a nun. We were not in touch.

A documentary film from Mridu Khosla’s Mastery series for StoneX Global focuses on your life and work. What stuck with me while watching that film was your emphasis on kindness. Whose kindness do you remember most?

Well, of course, initially it was my father, Aubrey Alexander Bond. It’s natural for a father to be kind, but I think my father made every effort to spend time with me and inspired me to take a keen interest in books and history. He used to take me to all the monuments in Delhi and tell me about them. He served as a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force but was not flying planes. It was in the section they called Codes and Cyphers. He did a lot of useful work during World War II and didn’t get much credit for it because it was a secret.

My friends Somi and Kishan and their mothers were very kind to me. And there was Miss Kellner, an old lady, who was my grandmother’s tenant. She couldn’t walk, so she was carried around on a chair. She kept different types of biscuits in a big tin. And whenever I visited her, she would bring out a tin of biscuits, and I could have as many as I wanted. So obviously my meetings were frequent! But she also told me stories and I liked them.

My grandchildren Siddharth and Srishti, and their parents Rakesh and Beena, take good care of me. Siddharth is working hard to organize the Ruskin Bond Literature Festival. Srishti is helping me with my writing. I can’t write or read like before because my eyesight has become weak. But it’s very hard to stop yourself from writing in your mind. I tell Srishti the stories that I have created, and she very sweetly writes down what I say.

Today many children are losing their childhood due to wars. Since many of your readers are children, what words of consolation would you like to say?

Children have always been affected by wars. In earlier times, wars were more localized than they are now, unless they were what we call world wars. I was a child during World War II. My father served in the Royal Air Force. Most of the real fighting was taking place in Burma, the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe and later in the Pacific when the US got involved. India was not isolated; Everyone was affected in some way or the other. There was a shortage of essential goods. Such things affect children also. There were no actual bombs dropped on me or guns pointed at me. But these days this is happening with children.

How do you feel when you watch the news about the situation in Palestine?

What is happening in Palestine and the Middle East is terrible! And war with Iran is almost unnecessary. There have always been crazy people who love war and enjoy creating war. We must protect children from them as much as possible and teach them about the wonderful benefits of peace over war to ensure that they do not overlook these benefits when they become adults.

Many writers expressing solidarity with Palestine are boycotting literary festivals that invite Israeli writers, or accepting sponsorship money from companies with close ties to the Israeli government and military. What are your thoughts on this?

Literary festivals have always had a political dimension. I remember politicians used to come and inaugurate the Jaipur Literature Festival. I am out of touch with them. But I must say that writers who feel strongly should speak up. I hate fights of any kind and I think this should never have started. This is the result of a world leader who is out of control. But a day will come when his name will be forgotten.

in your book magical mountain sceneryYou write how litchi orchards are disappearing in the Doon Valley because “there is more money in selling land” and residential colonies and high-rise buildings are being built. As someone who writes with such warmth and affection for trees, how do you sit with the sadness that comes with change?

The British created hill stations as getaway destinations for families who wanted to escape the heat. They have now become entertainment destinations for affluent middle-class tourists. There was a period in the 1950s and 60s when there was recession. People did not go to hill stations that much. You can buy a big house for 15 or 20 thousand rupees. Now you need 15 or 20 crores.

You can say that hill stations have become the target of tourism. Naturally, local merchants and business owners want tourists because tourists bring them money. Who doesn’t want money? We all do it. But this has led to a lot of construction and the valley has changed over the years.

A mountain was never built to sustain thousands of buildings or provide parking space for thousands of cars, so now we have landslides. Humans have tried their best to destroy the mountains, and it seems the mountains have decided they are tired of our stupidity.

Chintan Girish Modi is a journalist, teacher, poet, fiction writer and literary critic. Her work has appeared in anthologies such as 101 Indian Children’s Books We Love (2013), Borderlines: Volume 1 (2015), Clear Hold Build (2019), Fearless Love (2019), and Bent Book (2020).