Art

Saili, also an avid photographer, presents a picture-text bound memoir of his author pal from the latter’s childhood to as we know him best — a short, plump, bespectacled pied piper, who sprinkled our childhood with the innocence of his stories, and is still keeping the factory running with his gift. Saili poetically unravels little juicy nuggets from the chapters of Bond’s life in the hill station of Mussoorie. He mentions in bold about Bond’s not yet known fascination with hospital nurses, to a rumour about his death and provides photos of handwritten letters sent to the writer by his father.

It also has pictures depicting the many moods of Bond and of the places he travelled to; pictures of the place where the 78-year-old wrote his first book, The Room on the Roof. It includes moments captured on a camera roll where the ever smiling and ever playful author pleases his fans with glasses of nimbu pani. If you like Bond and his write ups, you’re sure going to love this. After all, as Saili says, “his (Bond’s) is the gentle voice of the hills.”