Even as the movie made on his story, Blue Umbrella, awaits theatrical release in India, renowned children's author Ruskin Bond is coming out with his latest offering - Funny Side Up, which captures the lighter moments from his life.
Ranging from his dislike for the monkey that makes itself comfortable on his potty or the best tea he ever had (made by a ex-convict, whose job was to make tea for the jail warden), the book marks the golden-jubilee year of published works of Bond.
"Humour has to be effective. It may have come easy to a P G Woodhouse, but the fact is that it is a difficult genre - which is why there is very little of it," Bond told PTI, adding, "My earlier work was serious but as I have grown older, I have learnt to laugh at life and myself."
Responding to a query on books increasingly getting made into movies, the writer said, "This is not new. Lot many old English movies were based on books."
Pleased with Chatri Chor - director Vishal Bharadwaj's cinematic interpretation of his story, Bond said that when he wrote Blue Umbrella some years ago he did not fathom that it would get made into a film one day.
"I feel that a film should capture the spirit of the work. For a piece of writing to be converted into a film, it must have a visual quality, but more importantly it should be a powerful story. I think most of Dickens works lend themselves well to cinema," he said.
The Sahitya Akademi awardee asserted that he had no intention of writing for films as he was quite content with writing books.
The 73-year-old said he did not feel the need to write differently for the tech-savvy children of today - who largely form his target audience. "I am a storyteller," he justified, adding, "I still write with a pen. I do not make too many corrections. I leave that for my publishers."
"We live in times where reading and buying books is in fashion. When I began in the 60s, there was little general publishing. Only a crazy few will shell out five bucks for a book," he said.
Meanwhile, Bond is yet to give up on the thought of marriage. "I look up the matrimonial and find that a Jain wants to marry a Jain, a Maharashtrian another Maharashtrian. No one is looking out for a Bond! I have an advice for my young readers. Read what you enjoy and you will be a book-lover all your life," he said, in lighter vein.
