A storyteller146;s tale

Ruskin Bond feels that, like Copperfield, he too came of age and told his story
There are quite a few classics in my head but when asked about the one that has stayed with me right from the beginning, it is David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Not to say that I had a similar childhood, no, far from it, but what captivated me about the novel was the protagonist who becomes an author in order to tell his story. When I wrote my first novel, The Room on the Roof, I was 17 and was fairly influenced by the Bildungsroman. As a writer then and even now, I have always been interested in how a character becomes a storyteller and how he tells that story.

My father, I think, introduced me to the book. We were quite close, given the fact that my mother had separated from him a few years ago and whenever I went to stay with him, he encouraged me to read and would take me to the movies. But he died early in my childhood. So, I went to live with my mother and my stepfather till I left for England, only to come back, live in a rented room on the roof and write my first novel. That way, it was similar to Copperfield, who came of age, and told his story.