26 Facts About Ruskin Bond

Ruskin Bond was born on 19 May 1934 and is an Indian author.

Ruskin Bond was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1992 for Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra.

Ruskin Bond was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014.

Ruskin Bond was born on 19 May 1934 in Kasauli, Punjab States Agency, British India.

Ruskin Bond's father, Aubrey Alexander Bond, who was British, was born in a military camp in Shahjahanpur, a small town in north India.

Ruskin Bond's father taught English to the princesses of Jamnagar palachise, and Bond and his sister Eldlen lived there till he was six.

When Ruskin Bond was eight years old, his mother separated from his father and married a Punjabi Hindu, Hari.

Ruskin Bond's father arranged for Bond to be brought to New Delhi where he was posted.

Ruskin Bond was very close to his father and describes this period with his father as one of the happiest times of his life.

At the time, Ruskin Bond was at his boarding school in Shimla and when informed about this tragedy by his teacher, he was thoroughly heartbroken.

Ruskin Bond attended Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, graduating in 1951.

Ruskin Bond wrote one of his first short stories, "Untouchable", at the age of sixteen in 1951.

Ruskin Bond worked for a few years freelancing from Delhi and Dehradun, sustaining himself financially by writing short stories and poems for newspapers and magazines.

Penguin India published two novels: The Room on the Roof and Vagrants in the Valley, which Ruskin Bond had written in 1956 as a sequel.

Ruskin Bond published his autobiography in what might be called two installments: Scenes from a Writer's Life, describing his formative years growing up in Anglo-India, and a further autobiography, Lone Fox Dancing.

Since 1963, Ruskin Bond has lived as a freelance writer in Mussoorie, staying with his adoptive family in Landour, Mussoorie's Ivy Cottage, which has been his home since 1980.

Ruskin Bond has a brother, William, who lives in Canada.

Ruskin Bond said that while his autobiographical work, Rain in the Mountains, was about his years spent in Mussoorie.

Ruskin Bond said that his favourite writing genres are essays and short stories.

Ruskin Bond considers himself a "visual writer" because for short stories, he first imagines them like a film and then notes them down.

Ruskin Bond made his maiden big-screen appearance with Vishal Bhardwaj's film 7 Khoon Maaf in 2011, based on his short story Susanna's Seven Husbands.

Ruskin Bond starts living with his guardian John Harrison, who is stern and harsh.

Ruskin Bond has no real friends and finds himself very lonely in his guardian's house in the European part of Dehradun.

Ruskin Bond wants to embrace Indian culture and lifestyle, and so he makes friends with some Indian boys in the local marketplace, hiding this from Harrison, continuing to go on secret adventures with them.

Ruskin Bond's first book, The Room on the Roof, which he wrote at the age of 17, was a semi-autobiographical story with Rusty being the protagonist.

Ruskin Bond was deeply attached to Dehra and most of his stories are inspired by the hills and valleys of this region.