Timeless Charm
Crisp white sheets of paper are scattered across Ruskin Bond’s antique writing table. There is no chair. He sits on the bed to compose his tales. The moment he gets tired, he lies down and takes a nap. Through the window he can see Landour’s picturesque mountains, eclipsed by a building or two. He sometimes imagines an unhindered view.
With a short film based on his story, The Black Cat, premiering last month and showing at several upcoming Indian film festivals, the ageing fox is as current as ever. Since he published his first short story, “Untouchables”, at the age of 16, Bond has resonated with readers across age groups. Now, the late Tom Alter and Shernaz Patel are bringing his words to life in the film by director Bhargav Saikia. “I like Saikia’s approach. He is sensitive and does not believe in changing the thematic essence of the story,” says Bond. The ground floor of the beloved author’s house in the hills of Mussoorie is a republic of rugs and cushions. The first one is reserved for ghosts from the era in between the two world wars (they’re harmless, he says), and his neat kitchen is ornamented by single malts and a lone bottle of Old Monk rum.
His well-received recent autobiography, Lone Fox Dancing, focuses on his early life—including the lonely childhood he believes shaped him as a writer. But “later years have witnessed interesting things… which I would like to share”, he says, hinting at another memoir in the making.
Will it include all the secrets left out of the first one? “You mean erotic dreams, fantasies and other stuff that would never be approved to go to print?” he smiles. Switching off the light in his bedroom-cum-writing studio, he points at the table, rather than the bed. “I love tales,” he says.
“Writing is the only thing I am good for.”