Rahul Vishnoi reviews The Hill of Enchantment by Ruskin Bond (published by Aleph Book Company, 2024).
Recently, it was Ruskin Bond’s 90th birthday. Now a nonagenarian, at least three of his books were published on this occasion by three separate publishers. How and when exactly did Bond become so famous and loved by kids and adults alike? Bond’s latest book, The Hill of Enchantment, tries to answer this question by taking readers through his journey in the publishing world in England and India.
Recommended Reading: Ruskin Bond’s How to be Happy Review: A Guide to Happiness
If you are a fledgling writer and wonder now and then how famous writers become famous, The Hill of Enchantment is the book for you. Is there a better person to inspire a young person who wants to be a writer than a nonagenarian who has not stopped writing yet? Ruskin Bond writes in detail about his writing journey that started when he was 12 with a short story. Using scratchy quills that had to be dipped into ink and blotted with paper, he began his career as a writer.
Early Life and Inspirations
Bond shares that bibliophiles resent the declining reading habits in the current times, but in the 1940s and 1950s, when he was a kid, reading was even rarer. Barring Bond, there was just one more boy in his class who was a reader. Bond shares many such incidents that end up inspiring beacons for writers who wish to get published. Even for an ordinary reader, these anecdotes serve as a magnifying mirror into his illustrious life.
Recommended Reading: Ruskin Bond’s Rusty Goes To London
The Hill of Enchantment has a sizeable portion dedicated to Bond’s personal life. Not even once does he paint a picture of sadness, but one can surmise the sorrow hiding between the lines and beyond the words. After a brief stay with his father in Jamnagar and Delhi, he succumbed to an early death, and Bond was dispatched to live with his mother and stepfather. Because of precarious domestic economics, they changed home every year and after his vacations, Bond would have to come to a new address every year. He pined for privacy but had to share his room with step-siblings.
Humble Beginnings and Struggles
His writing began with the publication of a short story in the Illustrated Weekly of India for Rs 5/-. The reader comes across Bond’s humility when he shares that although he is a big name now, it has taken him decades to reach where he is now. He is not a product of overnight success, he reiterates.
The Hill of Enchantment mildly hints at his dreary life in London during his teens and early 20s, when he wanted nothing more than to return to the hills of Dehradun. He also reveals his dimming vision because of an inadequate diet. Finally, when he returns to India, after brief sojourns to a handful of cities, he settles in Landour, a place that is now synonymous with Bond. Readers also get to know his adopted family.
Recommended Reading: Adapted: Ruskin Bond’s Susanna’s Seven Husbands
Favourite Quote from The Hill of Enchantment by Ruskin Bond
And then the room is full of fireflies, there must be ten or more of them, floating gently here and there, bringing sweetness and light into the twilight of my life.
Conclusion
Broadly, The Hill of Enchantment highlights Ruskin Bond’s process and journey of becoming a writer and provides a close look into his life and the hardships he bore to become the man he is now.
Have you read this captivating journey of a 90-year-old literary icon? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
