We made a trunk call to India’s beloved children’s author, Ruskin Bond, who at 82, is far from calling it a day. It is morning in Landour, Mussoorie, where Bond stays with his family, and we politely eavesdrop into some commotion in the background. We don’t mean to pry of course, and, without us asking, Bond says that the children are stepping out into the municipal garden and that he should lock the door behind them. “When tourists come knocking, I sometimes pretend I am not at home,” says the author, who is otherwise known to amiably sign books at the local bookstores in his neighbourhood and nearby Dehradun. And then, as we continue talking, a tap is heard on the door. “Wonder who that could be — a tourist, or a ghost perhaps?” he says, drawing a little chuckle from us, as we are instantly propelled into the worlds that Bond created in his literary career of more than 60 years.

Illustrations/Uday Mohite