A little girl wanted more action in the stories, another wanted the ghost stories to be more scary and the grand old author from Landour indulged. Eighty-four years young, Ruskin Bond still enjoys writing and tackling varied questions from his biggest fans — children.

Metro was in conversation with the most famous resident of Landour — in the city for an interactive session with heads of schools, teachers and students hosted by Ratna Sagar — on Saturday, posing a bunch of questions and revelling in the trademark Bond replies

You have been writing for over six decades, what is it that still motivates you?

The love of writing. I still enjoy writing. That’s important. Also having made it my only means of earning, making a living. Since I made it a profession I have to keep on writing to make a living from it, otherwise the bank balance will also fall very rapidly. But basically I enjoy writing, writing stories, writing about people, writing about nature. My writing is personal, too, about events in my own life.

We have seen you interact very often with children. What is it that you like or love about your conversation with them?

Sometimes you get different kind of questions, from children particularly. They can also be very frank. I recall a little girl telling me that “Sir, you must have more action in your stories. They are not adventurous enough”. Another girl said “I enjoy your ghost stories Sir, but they are not scary enough. Can’t you make them more frightening?” One child asked me “Why are you so modest.” Another piped up “Why do you think so much of yourself?”. A small boy said “Sir, I am going to be a writer one day. I’ll be a bigger writer than you.” So I wish them luck.

Children quarter your age queue up for your autograph or to talk to you. What do you have to say about the kind of fan following you have?

A lot of children do come up. Well, I don’t know maybe because they have met me in the course of their schooldays through stories that have turned up in their curriculum. If by chance they have enjoyed them then for them to see the author…. because most of the writers that go into school books are probably long dead and gone. So at least they are seeing a living author.

It is often said that the young are not reading or even if they are, they are doing so online. Would you want these children to read your books on Kindle or pick it up it from the shelf?

I prefer it if they read the actual book but I don’t mind if they read it in another form as long as they are reading something. Let them read the way they are comfortable. I think most kids who are really solid readers or who read a lot usually read books, real books. More casual readers might be using things like e-books or Kindle. But it’s alright.

Are children reading less?

Even when I was a boy in school, very few of us… were real readers…. everyone had to take a book off the library shelves but usually put (them) back unread. Those days we didn’t have television, we did not have the internet, we did not have video games…. Back in the 1950s, the number of young people who read books was limited also because education was limited. There weren’t many schools where you could get books… talking in terms of English-medium schools and now there are hundreds of thousands of them. So now even if there are a few kids reading, in terms of actual numbers it’s greater than it was then.

What is your advice for aspiring writers?

Writing is in fashion these days. A lot of young people, too, are publishing books and even old people and even kids. I never discourage anyone from writing. But I would say this: respect the language you write in. So before you start writing your magnum opus have some grounding in language and grammar, putting words together…. Your insight into human nature, if you are writing fiction, or if you are writing non-fiction then observation and interest in the subject if you want to do good work. It’s not just the matter of having your name on the cover of a book.

Students and teachers queue up for autographs, clicks and a few words with Ruskin Bond at Saturday’s event. Sanat Kr Sinha