Ruskin Bond has been writing for over sixty years and now has over 120 titles in print?novels, collections of short stories, poetry, essays, anthologies and books for children. His first novel, The Room on the Roof, received the prestigious John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1957. He has also received the Padma Shri (1999), the Padma Bhushan (2014) and two awards from Sahitya Akademi?one for his short stories and another for his writings for children. In 2012, the Delhi government gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award. Born in 1934, Ruskin Bond grew up in Jamnagar, Shimla, New Delhi and Dehradun. Apart from three years in the UK, he has spent all his life in India and now lives in Mussoorie with his adopted family.
As a novelist and storyteller, I have always drawn upon my memories of places that I have known and lived in over the years. More than most writers, perhaps, I find myself drawing inspiration from the past?my childhood, adolescence, youth, early manhood.. The stories and the poems float in through my window, float in from the magic mountains and the words appear on the page without much effort on my part.Ruskin Bond has been writing for over sixty years, in the course of which he has come to be known for his simple and witty writing style. These twenty-five stories form a delightful collection of some of his non-fiction sketches, his interaction with the natural world and his life in small towns that has given him some of his biggest stories.Bond?s journey as a writer has been a remarkable one and these stories show the master storyteller at his very best.
