It’s not everyday that you get to sit across the same table as someone whose books were a part of your school curriculum. So, when Ruskin Bond walks in at the lobby of a city hotel and greets you with a genial ‘hi’, the first thing that comes to your mind is that you are very ‘grown-up’.

The septuagenarian settles down for an interview with a little sigh of weariness —- he has been on his toes ever since he landed in the city last Sunday. From visiting schools to book readings at stores, he has not disappointed fans thronging every venue he graced with his presence.

“I had really wanted to visit my father’s grave. I finally got some time this morning while returning from Don Bosco School. I went to Bhowanipore cemetery. It is very well-maintained. It was a nice experience,” says the 75-year-old author on a visit to the city for the Puffin-Starmark quiz and also the Penguin-Crossword book fest. While there have been reports that he almost settled in the city had his father not passed away suddenly, the writer’s bonding with the city has been kept alive through his involvement in its literature, culture and quirks.

“When I came to this city first, nearly 60 years ago, I found it a little chaotic. But now, compared to a metro like Delhi, I think Kolkata is slow, almost sedate in the way life conducts itself in it,” he laughs.

While it’s easy to force a Bengali connection to Bond’s relatives in the city and his brief visits to Kolkata, he emphatically reminds that literature is the foremost thing that binds him to the city.

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