India’s most adored writer Ruskin Bond, was born in Kasauli in 1934 and he grew up in Jamnagar, Dehradun, New Delhi and Shimla. His fractured, traumatic childhood shaped a lot of his writing, perhaps making him more sensitive to children and their problems. In 1951 Ruskin penned his first book, "The Room on the Roof" (which went on to win the John Llewellyn Rhys prize), while doing several jobs to sustain himself while hunting for a publisher in UK. When he got his first advance for his book, he promptly used it to book a ticket to India, which he considered home.Over the years several compilations of his short stories, novels and essays have been released. He writes fiction for both children and adults and is popular with both. His writing style is very visual and visceral but moves with the languid pace of the hills which he writes about and his genres vary across the decades. Mr Bond received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1992 for "Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra". He was also awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and Padma Bhushan in 2014 for his contribution to literature.