By Hindustan Times
In my really early years, once I was four or five years old, my mum would read out stories to me, and he or she wouldn’t finish them in order that I’d wish to hear the remainder of the tale the following time. That’s where my passion for books started — from my mum. I had an overactive imagination and he or she knew that well, so she figured that methods to channel it was through reading … I MAY use the stories to assume things. And it worked — whenever she read out a story, I grew really fascinated with how the remainder of it could unfold.
Back then, we weren't even allowed to observe TV and whenever I did, it was just Doordarshan at my naani’s place … Chhaya Geet, remember? That’s how I DO KNOW all old songs! So, since there has been little else to do, by the point I USED TO BE 8 or 9, I had read every Enid Blyton book, and the Nancy Drews and Hardy Boys too. I loved Malory Towers and so desired to go there.
And, I had this amazing teacher once I was in my pre-teens ... my elocution teacher. Once every month, she’d take us to a bookstore to pick out a book. I picked a Roald Dahl book, and fell in love with him. I also loved Charles Dickens and Rudyard Kipling and CS Lewis. And that i can still read Gulliver’s Travels and A BIT Princess and Panchatantra and Baital Pachisi.
All these books you read to your formative years, they provide you a way of empathy and a way of right and wrong. They offer you morals and ethics. While you read Black Beauty from the viewpoint of a horse, you realise you must respect an animal. While you read Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, you realise there are kids who're not as privileged as you. It takes you to a spot you wouldn’t have ever been to … like Alice in Wonderland makes you dream … maybe there’s a mystical place like that which really exists!
I always desired to be part of the Famous Five. I WISHED to be a detective, a teacher, and after I read Great Expectations, I WISHED to be a painter. Books open up this world to you… you're feeling you are able to do much more. I don’t know why today’s kids read strange books or simply don’t read!
