Kasauli, 

Punjab States Agency, Ruskin Bond (born 19 May 1934) is an Indian

author of British descent. He lives with his adopted family in Landour, Mussoorie, India. The
Indian Council for Child Education has recognised his role in the growth of children's literature
in India.

he did his schooling from Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, from where he graduated in
1950. He won several writing competitions in the school including the Irwin Divinity Prize
and the Hailey Literature Prize. He wrote one of his first short stories, "Untouchable", at
the age of sixteen in 1951.

Following his high school education he went to his aunt's home in the Channel
Islands (U.K.) in 1951 for better prospects and stayed there for two years. In London, he
started writing his first novel, The Room on the Roof,

he 1978 Bollywood film Junoon is based on Bond's historical novel A Flight of

Pigeons (about an episode during the Indian Rebellion of 1857).

His father taught English to the princesses of Jamnagar palace and Ruskin and his sister Ellen
lived there till he was six. Later, Ruskin's father joined the Royal Air Force in 1939 and Ruskin
along with his mother and sister went to live at his maternal home at Dehradun.

He was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award in 1992 for Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra, his
novel in English. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014.  

The novel starts with the death of the father of Ruth Labadoor in front of her eyes in a church. This
murder is committed by the Indian rebels who are a part of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and who
have decided to kill all the Britishers of the small town of Shahjahanpur. It is then that Mariam
Labadoor, who is the mother of the narrator, Ruth, comes into action. She takes their entire family of
six to their trusted friend Lala Ramjimal who keeps them at his home and gives them security and
shelter. The Pathan leader Javed Khan comes to know that there are a few foreigners living in Lala's
home and he comes into his house unannounced and forcefully takes away Ruth and Mariam
Labadoor to his home. The rest of the book talks of the various incidents experienced by the
Labadoor family, who are very warmly welcomed by family members of Javed Khan. Javed Khan
himself is a cunning man and he pleads Mariam to marry Ruth. Mariam opposes the proposition
many times as she does not want Ruth to marry Javed Khan. She keeps the condition that if the
British are able to defeat the Indian rebels, then Javed Khan will not marry her daughter. But if they
are defeated by the rebels, then she would give her daughter to him. The British are able to take the
hold of the country and Javed Khan escapes the country and is not heard of. With a lot of help and
support, the Labadoor family finally reach their relatives.