‘Encourage their gifts, their talents’ Much loved author Ruskin Bond tells NICHOLA PAIS that children need less pressure and more open spaces
Ashort while earlier, hordes of excited selfie-seeking teachers had swamped him, nearly bringing the stage down. When we catch up for our personal tete a tete with the best loved Bond in India - not James, but Ruskin, of course - he is ensconced on a sofa in a green room, sipping on his tea, looking quite unshaken by the virtual stampede he had created at the Ratna Sagar ‘Memorable Moments with Ruskin Bond’ event. We ask if he tried the butter cookies; they’re rather good. “I was only allowed one,” he smiles a naughty smile that immediately belies his 84 years. His adopted grandson Rakesh and his wife clearly watch his intake closely. Bond’s granny, a stickler for moderation, would have approved!
It doesn’t matter that you might be meeting Bond for the first time; whether you discovered his books as a child or read his stories for adults, it’s like meeting an old friend, whom you probably know better than most of your relatives, even. His gentle wit sparkles and his wisdom never quite vanishes. Above all, there is a sense of tranquility about him; almost as if he carries his own bit of peaceful deodhar forest around him.
As perhaps Indian children’s favourite author, we start off asking whether the basics have really changed, in terms of what children today need. “Well, the basics haven’t changed. I think they need love, they need that home atmosphere and sometimes I don’t agree with kids being put away in boarding schools for long periods, hm? (He ends many of his sentences with this gently questioning ‘hm’, as if ensuring you’re on the same page).” He continues, “And what else do they need? They need the things they want! And what do they want – they like to eat, they like to have fun, adventure, they need more open spaces, rather than being cooped up in flats. Come back from school and then it’s the television and their phones… maybe they need more open spaces.”
And maybe they also need parents who are better enlightened about bringing up kids right? Too many parents expect too much from children these days… “Yes, they do, they all feel ambitious for their kids. With the result, they put pressure on them from a very young age. I think, school days, one shouldn’t have that kind of pressure. One should also enjoy one’s school days. By the time they finish school they are sort of expected to think of career almost entirely.”
Here too he is more gentle, less censoring… “It is difficult too for parents because they have often grown up in a different environment, some of them maybe couldn’t get the education that they are now able to give their children. So maybe they are expecting more from their children, having not had the best of it themselves. But you might have to look at it from a third point of view. I think they should let the child figure what they want to do in the sense of their scholastic interests, rather than push them into a line which they feel might have a better job or income. Encourage their gifts, their talents.”
And then a small note of caution… “We want them to be happy after all, so we don’t want to overdo the spoiling part either!”
In Bond’s case there was not much chance of being spoilt; he lost both his parents at a young age, and pretty much nourished his gift for writing on his own. Today, a recipient of both the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan, he advises budding writers, “Respect the language you write in, take a little trouble over the grammar and composition. Don’t be careless in your writing. Put your thoughts down in a way that they will mean something to the reader too.” And he also has a good antidote to writer’s block - “I have a visual memory and before I sit down to write a story, I will see the event, the characters, happening in my mind as you would a film. That’s a great advantage because then you don’t get writer’s block.”
And if you do find yourself stuck for a topic, you could perhaps take a leaf out of his book. “Over the years, having written so many stories, sometimes you run out of people to write about, then I write about animals, when I run out of animals, I write about relatives, and when I run out of relatives – or they run out of chasing me – then I write about ghosts!”
Bond’s ghost stories, along with all his other simple yet solid tales of friendship, struggle, love and loss, rank right up there. No, Ruskin Bond is not ‘just a children’s writer’. To hold a child’s attention, to make them chuckle, to move them to tears even, requires the best skill of all.