Ruskin Bond: Build castles in the air... then put foundations under them

Ruskin Bond, 89, says though he's written about ghosts many times, he's never seen or met one.

When he was 12 years old, Ruskin Bond read Charles Dickens' David Copperfield and he was hooked. A voracious reader and prolific writer, at 89 Ruskin Bond still reads "two-three books a week". Even today, he says, "if I am working on a book or a story and a book that I've ordered arrives, I immediately leave my work and turn to it."

In a video call from his home in Landour, he talks about reading, writing, his growing up years, why writers never retire though amateur footballers must, artificial intelligence, and a 10,000-word letter to young people, telling them to "build castles in the air, but put foundations under them". Edited excerpts:

Tell us about the theme of your latest book: The Night Has a Thousand Eyes.

The idea of the theme - love, warmth and friendship - was given to me by David Davidar, the publisher of Aleph. He wanted to make a selection of my favourite stories on those themes. So I wrote two-three new ones and we selected some old favourites and put them together in hopes they made a nice Christmas pudding or New Year's pie so old readers and hopefully new ones enjoy it. The title is the title of one of the new stories - it's taken from a poem:

The night has a thousand eyes, and the day but one;

Yet the light of the bright world dies. With the dying sun.

Those are the opening lines of the poem.

In the title story, you refer to your "fading memory" of a long-ago kiss on a voyage to India. Tell us about drawing on your life for your stories.

A lot of my stories are either semiautobiographical or they have been fictionalised from actual episodes or people I have met. This is one of them. It goes back to the time when as a young man I went out to England and the Channel Islands for a couple of years. I always wanted to come back, and did, after I got my first novel published. This particular voyage goes back to 1955, and this enchanting encounter which, in some ways it's frank, but in some ways, it is also a bit romaticised. It's a long time back but I have a good memory of my boyhood and my youth, and as you grow older, you have more to look back upon.

Do you think writers who draw on their lives to write - like you - need to have a rich life? Did/do you go looking for adventure?

When I was young, I thought it was necessary. In my early 20s, I used to go up on a lot of treks in the hills. I did a lot of climbing and walking and fell into rivers and things but nothing very dangerous.

But no, it's not necessary for a writer unless they are a travel travel writer. Just yesterday, I finished reading that classic Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Dana about a lawyer who goes on a voyage in the 1840s. He deliberately went on a voyage to write about it... I love reading sea stories, so I've had some great armchair adventures, too.

Most of my life I have been in the hills, and I have lived a tranquil life, because I am not by nature a person who goes looking for trouble.

How does writing now compare with writing in your 20s.

I began writing very young; I wasn't even 20 when my stories started appearing in the Illustrated Weekly of India in the 1950s. Those stories are still around; some are in this book. I am happy they haven't become dated, particularly stories like The Night Train at Deoli and The Woman on Platform 8 - these are stories I wrote in my 20s from a little room in Dehradun. I was freelancing, and I was full of optimism... I was young, and happy to struggle - of course rug writers are supposed to struggle.

Aleph Book Co.; 328 pages; Rs 699.

I portrayed myself in these stories... and the people I met - young boys, girls, familiars and different characters I met. Many of my stories are not strong in plot, they never were. But they were portraits of people who had entered my life or into whose lives I had intruded. I had written about them with affection, which is why it is easy to pick stories about friendship, love, warmth and that kind of good feeling among humans.

My friends, my relatives, my grandparents often feature in my stories... grandfather who kept unusual pets which I've written about in my stories; my granny who was a very strong woman; and even my father, who died when I was 10 but who put books my way and encouraged me to read and even write a little. And my uncle Ken, who is a bit crazy and who bumbled through life, making a mess of everything and surviving nonetheless. And eccentric aunts, and old ladies who told me stories about the hill stations in the old days, and the little girl who I used to see grazing the cows and she became the girl in The Blue Umbrella - it's in this collection, and it was filmed quite beautifully, too.

Sometimes I have written fiction, sometimes autobiography, and sometimes a mixture - sometimes it's confusing for me too, not just for the readers.

I've been lucky that I have a gift for writing about people. I am criticized sometimes for not having plots or for having very weak plots, but then life isn't plotted out, it's all inconsequential anyway and you can't have a neat beginning, middle and end - and so some of my stories don't end, they might be left hanging.

I was a good football player. Even a few months ago, I saw some kids playing football on the street and the ball came bouncing towards me. I couldn't resist it; I gave it a mighty kick. The ball didn't go very far but I was hopping around in agony

Oh yes, I am so lucky, I have got my granddaughter Srishti and my grandson Gautam and Siddharth. I am technologically illiterate still, but I am not bothered because Siddharth, Srishti and Gautam are all up to date, and even their parents to some extent.

And it's true that as you get older, in your 80s and 90s, it's hard to live on your own. You do need companionship and you need a family around you. In this respect I am fortunate that I have a huge family around me without ever having got married. Some people envy me, but they shouldn't. Nothing against marriage, although I did come from a broken home and it perhaps had some effect on my outlook.

You mentioned technology - do you think about AI and creativity.

I didn't think much about it because I don't know much about it. Recently I was watching a television programme where musicians in particular were very agitated because they spend years sometimes writing a lyric or a song and here comes AI and it can do it in 5 minutes. So it could perhaps dampen their creativity and prevent them from flourishing. I don't know how it would affect writers. I haven't thought so much about it. And my writing is so individual and personal in a way that it would be hard for AI to use it in some way.

If there were artificial intelligence (AI) around when I was a schoolboy, I might have passed my math exam. Even my physics which was pretty terrible - maybe artificial intelligence would be of some help. Or even now, maybe it would help to get a plot for a story that doesn't have a plot! Though I am old-fashioned, I don't change much, but I am tolerant towards change. If it doesn't get misused, as it could so easily be, I suppose, and we could all end up doing what our robots tell us to do. We'll have to wait and see.

Are you still a voracious reader?

Yes, I am a terrific reader. I am reader first and then a writer second. I still read 2-3 books a week. If I can't get out to the bookshop, I order online. All kinds of books, ranging from detective fiction to the supernatural to travel to classics - there's always something I want to read. I must have read in my life, must be close to 10,000 books. If I am working on a book or a story and a book that I've ordered arrives, I immediately leave my work and turn to it.

I am basically a reader... I was a bookworm. The ambition to be a writer was there from my schooldays, and it came about from books. When my house master in school saw that I was fond of books, they gave me the keys to the library. When I wanted to escape from things like morning PT, or extra homework - I used to slip into the library. I read everything there: the complete works of George Bernard Shaw and the complete works of Shakespeare.

And David Copperfield inspired you to write?

When I was 12, I took David Copperfield off the library shelf. I lapped it up; I loved it. David (Copperfield) runs away from home and becomes a writer. So to emulate him, I ran away from home but came back a couple days later, with my tail between my legs because I had no pocket money. But I did at least grow up to become a writer. It's made life worthwhile for me, being a writer. I can't imagine doing something else.

I have done other things when the bank balance was low. I have done jobs- all sorts of jobs. When I was in England, I worked for a travel agency - Thomas Cook - they lost some customers because of me.

I worked for a public health department in Jersey and I worked for a photographic agency and I came back to India and I worked briefly for Care India. All of these happened in-between periods of writing. Because as soon as I made some money from writing, I'd quit the job and go back to writing full-time. It's now been over 50 years since I had a job - I've lived off my writing; from the 1960s onwards.

I used to enjoy reading them, so I thought I must also try to write the odd ghost story. I've written quite a few and scared myself in the process. But my ghosts are not very frightening.

I was a bit rebellious... But my school, Bishop Cotton, still have my name up on the honours boards for various literary endeavours. I was good at games, too. I was a good football player. Even a few months ago, I saw some kids playing football on the street and the ball came bouncing towards me. I couldn't resist it; I gave it a mighty kick. The ball didn't go very far but I was hopping around in agony, because I had forgotten I had gout in my left foot and the contact with the ball set it off. So my footballing days are over. Fortunately you can continue writing into old age provided your mind and body are functioning. So writers don't retire, do they?

They say old soldiers never die, they only fade away. (Similarly) old writers never die, they simply go out of print!

Do you remember any teachers from school?

There was Mr Fischer who was the headmaster. Then there was Mr Jones who was a junior teacher - he taught literature and a Dickens enthusiast. He took an interest in me and encouraged me to read all or at least most of Dickens.

In 1948-49, we got a Hindi teacher, up to then Hindi wasn't taught in these public private schools. After a year, we were all flopping in our Junior Cambridge paper, and it was discovered that the teacher had come in from Punjab and he was teaching us Punjabi. So we were all becoming quite fluent in Punjabi but not in Hindi! This gentleman was fired and they got another teacher in my final year. He found my Hindi quite laughable. He wasn't well-known then but he became quite famous later - his name was Mohan Rakesh.

I'll leave out one or two, I think.

Why are there so many ghosts in your stories?

I have to hereby make a final confession that I have never seen or met a ghost, but I have written about them dozens of times. I grew up on ghost stories. One of the first books I read when I was 10 was a collection called Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by MR James. He wrote some wonderful ghost stories, and they are still read. I thoroughly enjoyed them and then I used to veer towards reading some more ghost stories, especially by Algernon Blackwood and WW Jacobs who wrote some very funny stories but in-between he'd write a very scary ghost story. I used to enjoy reading them, so I thought I must also try to write the odd ghost story. So I've written quite a few and scared myself in the process. But my ghosts are not very frightening.

A little girl came up to me once; she must have been 9 or 10. And she said I like your ghost stories, but they are not scary enough - can't you make them more frightening? So I realised it's very hard to scare children nowadays - they grow up on TV and there are many things on television that scare me but don't scare them.

What are you working on next?

I have just recently completed for Aleph books a memoir of my writing days. And now I am writing something for young friends or young readers - I've made it in the form of a letter telling them something about writing and something about their hopes and the future: Hang on to your dream and don't let them go. Build castles in the air, but put foundations under them. Sort of trying to build the reader a full perspective on life, because the world looks like a pretty grim and broken place at the moment. And I think we all need a little bit of humour and a little bit of kindness.

Kindness is the important thing. Kindness is what lifts us above the beast. We are capable of it, if we want to be kind. It's a 10,000-word letter. But my readers are quite patient.