“She was not beautiful or pretty but she was handsome. Hers was the firm, athletic body of a sixteen year-old boy, free of any surplus flesh.”
These lines from ‘His Neighbour’s Wife’, excerpted from ‘Writing for My Life: The Very Best of Ruskin Bond’ would describe Shanti Tsering, his real neighbor, very aptly. It is baffling how writers pick people they see and slip them in between their lines. The rest is very likely a work of fiction.
“I made it. I met him,” I announced excitedly to Tsering hopping out of the writer’s place.
“You are a lucky girl,” she replied and beamed amidst the most colorful and varied interiors of Doma’s Inn in Landour, Mussoorie. She has been running the place adjacent to Bond’s for decades now. It falls on the way to Char Dukan, another famous line of four shops in the area.
I didn’t know her and was in Landour specifically for the writer, asking around each soul to help me meet him, which happened. I even sought her help but it occurred entirely differently, because of my profession to be precise. She was happy that I finally did see him. And it was impossible to not share the news or hop into her tempting restaurant after the meeting. Who can resist Chinese/Tibetan when on the hills!
The appeal is even louder as the entire building is painted red with two dragons on the entrance. There are intricate Buddhist designs on the outer, and inner walls, specifically the roof. And you would find a mishmash of souvenirs hung and lined like an antique shop.
“Those are the things that I collected during my travel across the world,” told Tsering as she showed me around.
She, now in her sixties, is but from the North Eastern part of India and came to Mussoorie after her marriage.
“I belong to Sikkim and happened to have moved here with my husband. We were initially in the travel industry and conducted trips. Later, we got this place and turned it into a hotel,” she shared.
On any odd or even day, you would find her with a big dog, sipping some coffee or wine, staring at the sunset adorned in her ever-stylish clothes and jewelry. She even sings which she did with the customers on the day I visited, dramatically bursting into, “Haal kaisa hai janaab ka?” as I just met Bond to check on his health and of course fangirl.
There are even some instruments that she plays. I believe she has also learnt horse riding. That is a life most of us dream of living.
“How does it feel to be the neighbour of Ruskin Bond?” I asked. “It is pleasing and a blessing though we get to see very less of him now,” she said.
This is natural as our beloved writer now steps out seldom. But you and I could always read his books, or visit Landour, or even actually be his neighbor for a day or more. For that you have to book the lodgings on the first floor of Doma’s which is always in high demand. And it’s to be done in person.