AUTUMN SONATA
Sound advice from Ruskin Bond on how to live a good life, especially in the twilight years
OOne is never too old to write a novel or any other book for that matter. Agatha Christie was well into her eighties when she wrote some of her bestselling detective stories. At the age of 90, P.G. Wodehouse continued to regale us with stories of Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves. The body might falter but, if you are lucky, the brain will keep ticking away. Ruskin Bond, one of our most admired writers, is still active. At the age of 89, he has come up with a gem. The
Golden Years is about the many joys of living a good, long life.
Bond is never lonely, but he enjoys solitude. “Loneliness is something that is thrust upon us, solitude is something we seek,” he writes. When loneliness threatens to creep in, he goes for long walks through the hills around Landour, the place he calls home and where he is spending his twilight years with his family. Or he settles down in a quiet corner to read a book.
Bond was 17 when he wrote his first novel, The Room on the Roof. He wrote it on a portable typewriter he bought with borrowed money. It is now useless, but lies in his attic as a reminder of the person who had so generously lent him the money.
I was a teenager living in distant Fiji when I read excerpts from The Room on
the Roof in the literary magazine Caravan. Since then, I have been hooked on Ruskin Bond. He is prolific and has published over a hundred books that include novels, essays, poems and books for children. These days, he prefers to write short pieces because they can be completed in a day. He takes life one day at a time. “Living one day at a time or if you prefer, one week or one month at a time, we come to appreciate all that’s beautiful and worthwhile on earth—nature’s seasons; sunrise and sunset; night and day, sunshine and rain, the wealth of our forests, rivers and oceans. Also human kindness, fortitude, the creative spirit,” he says.
There is good advice here on living a contented life, but Bond also takes you on brisk journeys, at times through the streets of London, at other times through the foothills of the Himalayas, exploring the pine forests and the streams. When he has forgotten to pack a lunch for a long walk, he is not above asking a stranger passing by on a mule to share his rotis with him. He will eat the roti in his company with the onion that comes with it.
This book is as slim as they come, but with an astonishing 60 chapters. Each is about 500 words long, some even shorter. It can be read in about an hour, but is best savoured in small doses. ■