Outside the window of Ruskin Bond's room in Ladour, Mussoorie, the wind is especially persistent, like a baby howling to be let in. "It sometimes howls throughout the night. Often, it has given me inspiration for a ghost story or two," says the iconic writer, known as much for his children and nature-inspired stories as for his tales of hill station ghosts.
On his 83rd birthday, Bond is in a reflective mood as he has finished work on his autobiography that is due to be released in a few months' time. The title of the book, he says, is inspired by a fox. Why a fox, of all animals? "It's not because I particularly resemble a fox," says the writer with his characteristic self-depreciating humour. "It's just that I got the idea for the book's title "Lone Fox Dancing" from a poem that I wrote some years ago. The poem popped up in my mind while I was thinking of writing my life story since it talks about a fox which through its dance on a moonlit night, is expressing its joy and individuality. I found that apt for my life's description since through my writings, I have been expressing my individuality and joy too."
Ruskin Bond with a young fan
Much of Bond's work has been autobiographical in nature. What would the autobiography offer that would be additional? "I have tried to write about the things I might have omitted before," he says. "I look at it as a record of my writing life -- which might be useful for other young writers -- as well as a record of my personal life -- my childhood in Jamnagar, Dehradun, schooling in Shimla; London and the Channel Islands where I spent a few years as a young man, and the 50 years or so that I have spent in Mussoorie."
And would he consider this as his last book? "Looking back, I feel that I can write a second autobiography putting in all the things that I have left out in this one," says the writer who has penned over 150 books in a career spanning over 60 years. And as an afterthought, he adds with a chuckle, as the wind continues to howl outside his window, "If I run out of ideas involving people and animals, I can always turn to ghosts."
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