Ruskin Bond, Shankar to receive lifetime awards

Their popularity proves the adage that age is just a number. Both Ruskin Bond and Manishankar Mukherjee are 84 years old and are not only most prolific but perennially remain on top of the bestselling charts.
The Times Litfest, which has been one of the most popular events that Delhi looks forward to every year for some years now, will debut in Kolkata on Sunday, November 25.
The fest will start with Bond and Shankar (Manishankar Mukherjee’s pen name, by which he is popularly known) receiving their lifetime achievement awards. While Shankar will present the award to Bond, painter Jogen Chowdhury will be on stage to present the award to Shankar.
“I am happy that TOI has considered me for the award and indeed it will be a special occasion for me to share the stage with Ruskin Bond,” said Shankar. “I see his neverending popularity with children. It is most difficult to write for children, and Bond has been doing it so effortlessly.
They say that today’s kids don’t read, but if you see the number of kids who flock around Bond to get books signed by him, you realise how wrong you are.”
Chowdhury is coming back from Santiniketan, where he has been holding an art movement in association with the state government, just to be a part of the inaugural session of the litfest and present the award to Shankar. “I became a Shankar fan the moment I read ‘Koto Ajanare’, his tribute to his boss, Barwell, the last British barrister of Calcutta High Court. It offers a rare window to life, which is still fresh in my memory.
Shankar is a unique writer,” he said.
After the felicitation, the authors will speak on their lives and the experiences they have gathered for all these years. They will take the audience through the alleys they have travelled, the inspirations they have picked up and how they converted these experiences into stories one after the other.
Author Bani Basu will be in conversation with Shankar about how he started his life from scratch working as a clerk to Barwell at Calcutta High Court. Barwell was his writing inspiration and soon after his death, Shankar, experimenting with a myriad odd jobs, started writing ‘Chowringhee’, his second book, based on a hotel.
After that, there was no turning back.
Bond is an award-winning Indian author, much renowned for his role in promoting children’s literature in India.
A prolific writer, he has written over 500 short stories, essays and novels. He is also the author of more than 50 books for children and two volumes of autobiography. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and Padma Bhushan in 2014.