Home Feature Happy Birthday, Mr Ruskin  Bond!

Happy Birthday, Mr Ruskin  Bond!

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By Satish Sharma
I go back to the year 1996 when I launched the weekly Garhwal Post in the English language!
I requested Deepak Nagalia, the owner of Prabhat Cinema (now closed) and an eminent citizen of Doon, for a favour. He was at that time also the owner of Hotel Fort Resort, near Picture Palace (now Royal Orchid Fort Resort), Mussoorie. I asked him for a complimentary suite there, which he happily agreed to and told me I could stay there for as long as I liked.
So, one fine day I packed my rucksack and went to Mussoorie on my Bajaj Chetak scooter.
I visited almost every writer’s place in Mussoorie seeking their blessings for my English paper, which I was about to launch in a month’s time.
I met Ruskin Bond, Hugh & Colleen Gantzer, Tom Alter, Stephen Alter, Bill Aitken, Ganesh Saili, Sudhir Thapliyal, and heads of schools, including Woodstock.
When I visited Mr Bond‘s cottage and shared the idea of GARHWAL POST and touched his feet for his blessings, he said wait, and went to his room and come back with a pile of his books. He handed over around 30 books written by him and said, “Reproduce them in your paper with my blessings.” So, from day one, Bond‘s stories were published in Garhwal Post. That was a huge gift from him that I will always cherish.
Today, I take this opportunity to once again thank the generosity of the man we all love. Thank you Mr Bond, yet again, and Happy Birthday!
World renowned travel writers Hugh & Colleen Gantzer have been writing for us from day one. For the past 28 years, they have been one of the favourites.
The late Sudhir Thapliyal’s column, ‘A View from the Top’, too, was popular and liked by one and all.
The late Tom Alter was so fond of Garhwal Post that he carried copies of the paper in Mumbai and presented them to his colleagues and told them that, “This is my home town’s paper and my article is published in this edition.” Tom’s articles were published in all leading publications but this was his affection towards his home town.
Ganesh Saili’s Sunday article is quite popular and our readers wait for them to be published.
Once, the iconic journalist of our country, friend and founder of ‘Outlook’ magazine, Vinod Mehta, invited Bond, Saili, top journalists Ashok P Misra and Anjali Nauriyal, me and others to ‘Old Tavern’ for drinks and dinner. After dinner when he saw the bill he jokingly remarked, “This is a huge bill I’m paying, I think we will have to skip the next edition of Outlook.” The late Mr Mehta hosted many parties for us and vice versa.
Thank you everyone for joining in the success of Garhwal Post!
Pic: Bhumesh Bharti