Ruskin Bond is an Indian author, whose short stories have been adapted into movies. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his short story collection, 'Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra', given by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Literature. He was also awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 for contributions to children's literature.
Background
Ruskin Bond was born in a military hospital in Kasauli to Edith Clerke and Aubrey Bond. His siblings were Ellen and William. When Bond was four years old, his mother was separated from his father and married a Punjabi-Hindu, Mr. Hari. Bond spent his early childhood in Jamnagar and Shimla. At the age of ten Ruskin went to live at his grandmother's house in Dehradun after his father's sudden death in 1944 from malaria. After his high school education he spent four years in England. In London he started writing his first novel, 'The Room on the Roof', the semi-autobiographical story of the orphaned Anglo-Indian boy Rusty. He now lives with his adopted family in Landour near Mussoorie.
Education
He completed his schooling at Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, from where he graduated in 1952 after having been successful in winning several writing competitions in the school like Irwin Divinity Prize, Hailey Lietrature Prize.
Career
Bond worked for some years as a journalist in Delhi and Dehradun. Since 1963 he has lived as a freelance writer in Mussoorie, a town in the Himalayan foothills. He wrote 'Vagrants in the Valley', as a sequel to 'The Room on the Roof'. These two novels were published in one volume by Penguin India in 1993. The following year a collection of his non-fiction writings, 'The Best Of Ruskin Bond' was published by Penguin India.