Two Questions with Author Ruskin Bond

Do you think not getting what you want is sometimes good luck in disguise?

You can’t get what you want all the time. So one must get used to certain disappointments and refusals. You can’t be successful all the time. Nor should you be, I think. It’s good to struggle a bit and learn to handle setbacks. It makes you stronger. Otherwise, if you are successful all the time, it’s hard to handle failure, which inevitably comes. It happens with creative people. Suddenly their popularity goes. They are forgotten. Over the years so many famous writers are actually being forgotten or neglected, sometimes in their lifetime too.

Do you allow your work to be edited?

Oh, yes. I always take suggestions. Even in case of Maharani (a novel), Chiki Sarkar (book publisher) had made a few suggestions. I certainly followed several of them in regard to pruning a bit or a few cuts here and there, which I did. Not in the actual writing, of course. Nobody has ever asked me to change my style or the way I write. The editing is mostly related to odd facts date and time present and time past. As you get older you get things mixed up. It’s good to have somebody point out little discrepancies.

First published in The Statesman

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