Ruskin Bond (born 19 May in the year 1934) is an Anglo-Indian author. His first novel, The Room on the Roof, was published in 1956, and it entered the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1957. Bond has penned further than 500 short stories, essays, and novels, including 64 books for children. He was also awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in the year 1992 for Our Trees Still Grow in Dehradun. He was awarded both the Padma Shri award in the year 1999 and  Padma Bhushan in the year 2014. Ruskin Bond lives with his espoused family in Landour, Mussoorie.

Lifestyle

Ruskin’s father used to tutor English to the goddesses of the palace known as Jamnagar and Ruskin and his family Ellen also lived there still, he was six years old. subsequently, Ruskin’s father joined the Royal Air Force in the year 1939, and Ruskin along with his ma and family went to live at his maternal home that was located in Dehradun. When Ruskin was eight years old, his ma got separated from his father and married a Punjabi Hindu, named Hari. His father then arranged for Ruskin to be brought to New Delhi where his father was posted. He was truly close and blessed to have a father like him and describes this period with his father as one of the happiest times of his life.

A Career as an Author

He worked numerous times freelancing from Delhi and Dehradun. He sustained himself financially by writing short stories and poems for journals and magazines. During his youth, something he said,” sometimes I got lucky and some(work) got named and I earned a numerous hundred rupees. Since I was in my 20s and didn’t have any arrears I was just happy to be doing what I loved doing swish.” In 1963, he then went to live in Mussoorie [Uttarakhand] because besides liking that place, it was also very close to the editors and publishers in Delhi.