‘SOMEONE WITH LOTS OF SEX APPEAL...
...should play me in a biopic,’ says author Ruskin Bond, who was in Delhi to launch his new book
There is no bigger champion of the utility of books than novelist Ruskin Bond. “Once, when I was travelling alone, a mugger approached me and threatened to hand him over all my money. I banged a book I was carrying on his head, poked it in his abdomen, and saved myself from getting robbed. So, there are many benefits of reading books.” This is the kind of wit and ingenuity, both in life and art, that makes Rusty, everyone’s favourite.
Bond was in the Capital to launch his new book, Till the Clouds Roll by, which is reminiscent of The Room on the Roof, first published in 1956, where the protagonist, Rusty tries to adjust to a lonely life, after losing his parents.
Book lovers may wonder what, after his tell-all autobiography, Lone Fox Dancing, remains to be said of his life, but Bond says, “Most of my writings have been autobiographical. While Lone Fox Dancing is a longer narrative for mature readers, this book and Looking for the Rainbow: My Years with Daddy are for children.”
Successfully resisting a digitising world, Bond, indeed the Lone Fox, still writes using pen and paper, and sends
Vishal [Bhardwaj] can direct it (if a biopic on his life is made). It should be a funny one. Vishal is also doing a film based on another of my books, Mr Oliver’s Diary RUSKIN BOND, AUTHOR
handwritten manuscripts to publishers. Disagreeing that books are losing their charm, he says, “Reading has always been a minority pastime. Yes, the distractions were less earlier, but the number was same. But now, Delhi has a world book fair.”
Bond’s stories have widely been adapted for film and TV. So, if his autobiography is adapted for the screen, who does he think would do justice to the role? “Someone with lots of sex appeal. Vishal (Bhardwaj, filmmaker) can direct it. It should be a funny one,” he says, laughing.