For seasoned author Ruskin Bond, age is just a number as he celebrates the many joys of life as a senior citizen

Ruskin Bond writes about savouring old age in his latest book The Golden Years - The Many Joys of Living a Good Long Life.

Like most self-help books, The Golden Years comes with an impressive subtitle — The Many Joys of Living a Good Long Life. In this case, however, the author is speaking from a wealth of experience. About 89 years of experience, to be precise.

The slim volume, which was released by publisher HarperCollins on May 19 to coincide with his 89th birthday, is meant for readers who, like Ruskin Bond, are over the age of 60 years, and eager to savour life. “As I am a reasonably happy person by nature, I thought maybe I could encourage others to be more positive about growing old. Of course, if you enjoy your work, you wouldn’t want to retire. I take life one day at a time. Now it is one story at a time. So I keep writing and reading a lot,” he says, discussing the book

Ruskin Bond begins his latest book The Golden Years, with advice for writers: ‘If you have reached the pinnacle of your writing career, why stop? And if you haven’t achieved what you set out to, why give up?’

The wisdom may resonate with those who net and pin down words on the page for a living; but how does a creator find the will to keep going in an era that has welcomed artificial intelligence chatbots?

“That’s true. Only two days ago, I was invited to a seminar on artificial intelligence, and there were two or three people who gave talks which I found difficult to follow. When my turn came to speak, I said, ‘I’m sorry but I have to depend on my natural and normal intelligence to survive in this world.’ But a robot could have helped me with my sums in school, and maybe I would have become a mathematical genius,” he laughs, over the phone from his home in Landour, near Mussoorie in Uttarakhand.

Having given up typing due to shoulder and neck pain long ago, Bond writes his manuscripts by hand. “My handwriting is quite decent; my publishers don’t object. I enjoy writing by hand with colourful ballpoint pens, because it is more personal in a way.”

Bond retains his light-hearted style of conveying profound thoughts in his book. With 60 chapters, some not longer than a page or two, The Golden Years can be read in one sitting. Some of the chapters seem to be have similar themes ( The Joy of Walking and The Lonely Times for example), but when re-read at a more leisurely pace, they have their own charm.