Prolific author Ruskin Bond, a storyteller beloved by children and adults alike, is set to celebrate his 82nd birthday with the publication of two new books, which showcase his overwhelming love for nature.

'My favourite Nature Stories' and 'The World Outside My Window' are being brought out by Rupa Publications on May 19, the author's birthday.

While in the first book Bond details various encounters with the natural world, in the second book he writes about some of the most interesting insects, birds, trees and flowers he has observed.

"When I came to live in Mussoorie just 50 years ago, I lived in Maplewood Lodge, a cottage below Wynberg-Allen School. Its windows opened on to a well-forested hillside. So naturally I wrote about the trees, wild flowers, and birds and other creatures who lived among them," Bond says.

From Mussoorie, in the foothills of the Himalayas, Bond says circumstances forced him to move higher up the mountain, where he has been living for the last 35 years on the top floor of Ivy cottage in Landour Cantonment.

"Here there are windows too, and they open on to the sky, clouds, the Doon Valley and range upon range of mountains. And from this perch on the hillside I feel that I am part of the greater world, mother India as well as the natural world of planet Earth," he says.

From the chorus of cicadas to the song of the whistling thrush, from his love for sea shells to his favourite place on earth, Bond details why he has such an overwhelming love for nature.

In the 'World Outside My Window' Bond advises readers, when they have some time to spare, to make a list of all the different insects that they can name.

"Imagine you knew the name of every kind of insect in India or even in the world. If you were to write them all down, it would take you at least a month, without stopping to sleep or eat, to complete the list!" he says.

With his keen observational skills Bond is able to bring



in delightful details into his pieces.

From the butterfly, dragonfly, scorpion and ant lion to different varities of cacti, semul trees, the jasmine flower and the wild flowers found in the Himalayan region, as well as birds of the hills and the urban areas like Delhi, Bond describes them all.

The author whose list of books include 'Room on the Roof', 'The Blue Umbrella', 'Funny Side Up', 'Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra' and 'A Flight of Pigeons' has over 500 short stories, essays and novels to his credit.

He recieved the the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1992 for his 'Our Trees Still Grow in Dehrah' and has also been conferred with prestigious awards like the Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.

His autobiographical work, 'Rain in the Mountains' is set in Mussoorie and other books that showcase his love for nature are 'Dust on the Mountains', 'An Island of Trees', 'The Death of Trees', 'The Book of Nature.'



Among his reading list that he has previously acknowledged through his writings and interviews is the 'The Story of My Heart', by Richard Jefferies, a naturalist and a gamekeeper who in Bond's words was "a true pagan who responded in the most sensual way to every breath of wind, blade of grass, leaf-bud, raindrop, sunbeam or creature of the wild."In 'In Creatures Great and Small', Bond says, "Instead of having brothers and sisters to grow up with in India, I had as my companions an odd assortment of pets, which included a monkey, a tortoise, a python, and a Great Indian Hornbill. The person responsible for all this wildlife was my grandfather."In 'The Prospect of Flowers', Bond had descibed the friendship between a young school boy with an elderly woman who lived alone with a cat and who had a deep love and knowledge of rare flowers.

In 'Dust on the Mountains' Bond raises the issue of indiscriminate exploitation of nature.