Ruskin Bond Says Birthdays Should Be About Cakes, Jalebis, And Samosas; We Can't Agree More!
Before the pandemic hit, Bond's birthdays were more special. He would spend time in the evening at his favorite bookstore, Cambridge in Mussoorie, with his fans and cut a cake.
Ruskin Bond holds an extraordinary place in our hearts¡ª especially for 90s kids who grew up reading his magical tales. Ruskin Bond isn't a writer; the man is an emotion for many. On Thursday, he turned 88.
Instagram
Talking about his birthday, the legendary author spoke to PTI and said, "Birthday is a day in the year we do sometimes realize how lucky we are to be alive."
On his 88th birthday, he has a special gift for all his readers, a new book titled ¡°How To Live Your Life.¡±
Talking about the book, he said, ¡°Be whatever you want to be¡ Give it your heart and soul, and you will have made something of your life, my friend."
Ruskin Bond's new book is packed with all the good advice anyone, any age, would love and benefit from because it is sound wisdom distilled from the wonderful life and times of the inimitable Ruskin Bond.
Instagram
Before the pandemic hit, Bond's birthdays were more special. He would spend time in the evening at his favorite bookstore, Cambridge in Mussoorie, with his fans and cut a cake.
Instagram
¡°My dream birthday party would be one in which hundreds of my young readers join me, all enjoying cakes, jalebis, samosas, etc.; the bill to be paid by my publishers,¡± Bond told PTI.
The beginning of his book has a special line by him: ¡°I have, on the whole, had a wonderful life, and I will tell you more about it as we go along,¡±
Among the many things that he loves, he says, he loves writing with a pen, basking in the sun, having a good breakfast, and reading letters written by his well-wishers and fans.
Instagram
If you are an ardent Ruskin Bond fan, you'd know his love for Jalebis!
Sharing another piece of advice for his fans and readers, he says,
¡°There¡¯s something special you can do, even if you are not yet quite sure what it could be. It¡¯s lurking there somewhere in the back of your mind. It will come to the fore one of these days. And then you can forge ahead. And don¡¯t look back."
Bond also urges children not to look back at failure.
¡°Our past is full of regrets, of things that bother us from time to time. As you get older, you will look back at your boyhood, girlhood, and teens and wish that you had done things differently at certain times. Don¡¯t let these memories stand in your way.¡±
Bond was born in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, and grew up in Jamnagar, Dehradun, New Delhi, and Shimla.
He spent four years in the Channel Islands and London as a young man. He returned to India in 1955. He now lives in Landour, Mussoorie, with his adopted family.
At the age of eight, Bond escaped his jail-like boarding school in the hills and went on to live with his father in Delhi. His Delhi life was all about books, visits to the cinema, music, walks, and conversations with his father ¨C a dream life for a curious and wildly imaginative boy.
His first novel, ¡°The Room on the Roof,¡± written at 17, received the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. Since then, Bond has written many novellas, essays, poems, and children¡¯s books.
Bond has also written over 500 short stories and articles that have appeared in magazines and anthologies. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1993, the Padma Shri in 1999, and the Padma Bhushan in 2014.
(With inputs from PTI)
(For more trending stories, follow us on Telegram.)
