Perseverance is key to success: Ruskin Bond

"It is not very easy to write a book. There are a lot of commitments. Lot of heartbreaks. It is very difficult to get people to publish the first book," said Bond at the release of 'Autumn Raga', the first English novel by journalist Jaskiran Chopra.

Expressing concern over difficulties in getting "real publishers" for publishing books, Bond said sometimes publishers only give a few books to writers as token of royalty.

In his advice as encouragement to writers, the Indian author of British descent further said sometimes even writing a second book becomes more difficult than the first one.
"The third becomes even tougher than the second one," said Bond.

Apparently stung by some remarks by some writers, Bond also made it clear that "I am not a banyan tree. Nor am I a James Bond."

Referring to haunted houses, the major theme in his books, Bond jokingly said there are not much haunted houses left now as they are mostly occupied.

Referring to canals of Dehradun, he also recalled that he fell twice into these canals and was happy that these canals are now finally covered.