A verdant garden in bloom, birds chirping in the backdrop, a warm sun making its way across the horizon and lots of children, of course. India's favourite author is 92, and the celebration could not have been more Ruskin Bond-ish — wisdom and wit wrapped into one perfect afternoon.
Recovering from a spinal surgery and confined to a wheelchair, he is frail, but the zest is intact as he regales his audience with stories about the time he had 20 aloo tikkis, his abiding love for India, friendship and going gently into old age. Moving seamlessly from one mood to another. Quite like his books.
"When I was a boy in Dehradun, I used to go to the chaat corner at the clock tower, and I would eat golgappas, tikkis and chaat. Also, I had the record for some time for eating the largest number of tikkis. I ate 20 tikkis in one go, and I'm still alive," Bond, who turns 92 on Tuesday, said.
Few writers can boast 75 years of storytelling, over 500 published works and generations of devoted readers; fewer still can laugh about it with Bond's trademark ease.
The birthday this time is in Dehradun for health reasons, away from his home Ivy Cottage in misty Landour higher up in the Uttarakhand hills.
The launch of his latest book, ‘All-Time Favourite Friendship Stories’, last week doubled as a warm pre-birthday gathering. Dressed in a light pink T-shirt, birthday boy Bond basked in the sunshine and affection of admirers.
The celebrated writer is unabashed about his love for India. And if there is one piece of advice the storyteller wants his young readers to carry into adulthood, it is this: go wherever life takes you, but always come back to India.
"... because India is your heart and soul. I left India when I was 17, and I came back three or four years later because I knew I wasn't going to be happy in the West, and my heart and soul was here, and I missed everything about India. Not just people or places, but the atmosphere," he told excited students, many clutching greeting cards, eagerly waiting for a photo or a signed copy of his book.
"... An atmosphere that you won't find anywhere else, because India is so varied and yet, in spite of all those differences, you are cohesive, you come together as one, as one great being, not just a nation, but a continent, a double nation, a nation within nations," Bond added.
His literary career began not from ambition, but from an inability to survive chemistry, maths, and physics, Bond joked.
Born to British parents Edith Clarke and Aubrey Bond in 1934 in Kasauli, Bond was only four when his mother separated from his father and married an Indian.
He has received numerous awards and honours, including the Sahitya Akademi Award for English writing in 1992, the Padma Shri in 1999, the Padma Bhushan in 2014 and the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 2021.