First year in the Engineering College was very
different because it was a new and colorful world with unbridled freedom. You
would rather hang out with your friends and roam around the city rather than
cuddle up in a corner of your room with a book in your hand. It was only during
the middle of the Second year that I came back to the world of books again.
This was during the semester breaks when you get a week or so off before the
next semester starts. This was the time when I started reading the Bourne Series.
Eric Lustbader’s Miko-Ninja series and getting a glimpse of the James Hadley
Chase Series of books. Those were the
days when you remain shut in the room for the entire day reading and going out
of the room to only eat. I recollect vaguely that I used to cover up to 300
pages in a day at that time. After a book I ensured that I took a break and
went out with friends. In all probability they would give me a look of
bewilderment when I tell them as to what I was up to for the rest of the days.
It was around this time that I got to hear
about the British Council of India Library in Trivandrum. It was one of the
best libraries in town fully air-conditioned and also boasted a very good
ambience of the reading hall. It was quite different from the Central Public
Library that we were accustomed to. I remember once we had to write a project
on the poet Oscar Wilde. I had gone to the Public Library along with a couple
of friends took out some reference books made notes on the author spending a
day or so over there. Then wrote a fair copy and submitted for grading. Coming back to the British Library the
ambience of the reading hall was out of the world. This became another abode of
me I ended up spending some quality time over there. A majority of the users
who came there had come mainly to use the complimentary internet rather than
reading. Here, I was introduced to the expatriate Indian writers which included
Anita Desai and Jhumpa Lahiri. I still remember the first book that I borrowed
and read from the Library was ‘Man-Eaters of Kumaon’ by Jim Corbett which I
thoroughly enjoyed. It was a book describing the hunting expeditions of the
author who was a well-known wild life enthusiast .There was a sequel to this
book which I really wanted to read but couldn’t get hold of it. As I write this
piece I recall this long forgotten fact and have just ordered the sequel of
this book in Amazon. Going through the book I can very well recreate the thrill
that I had experienced back then. It was a disappointment that The British
Library in Trivandrum shut down over the years.
It would be disservice if I don’t mention about
the Harry Potter series of books which turned out to be the biggest block
buster of our times. You would be surprised to know that even though being a
reading buff I have not read a single book of that series. For some odd reason
I never felt interested in reading them. The reason could be that it became
popular during the pressure cooker years (Class 10 to 12) that I described earlier.
On hindsight I think it would have been the fantasy part of the book that might
have put me off them .It was rather amusing to note that my cousins in
Australia would camp near the book stores on the midnight of the release so
that they could lay their hands on the book. Within the next 2-3 days they
would complete that book and mail it to my younger brother here in India who
would devour the book on a single brace. That way he would complete reading the
book even before it is released in India and start bragging about it.
Another prolific period of reading in my life
was when I moved to Mumbai for work. I had plenty of time to spare and I was a
regular at the footpaths that sold second hand books in and around Churchgate
where my brother was based at that time. Since he was in college he himself had
a good number of books which he would lend me to read. That was when I was introduced to the likes
of Paulo Coelho, Dan Brown and other contemporary writers of the time. I can
very well recall the goosebumps that I experienced while reading “The Da Vinci
Code” and “Angels and Demons” primarily because I am a devout catholic.
Shataram is another book that captivated my attention at that time because it
had Bombay at its heart and I have been living in Bombay for a few years then.
After marriage it became difficult to read a
book because both of us were working and we had very little time to spend with
each other. If I settled with a book at that time it would mean my spouse would
just get bored. You can take away a book from the reader but never the habit of
reading from him. Sensing my predicament my wife got me “The Kite Runner” by
Khaled Hosseini as a birthday gift. I was very much overjoyed to lay my hands
on a book that I finished reading the book over the weekend which was reminiscent
of my College days. Thankfully, it helped me hit the reset button on my
favorite hobby. This was just the start which eventually led me to get immersed
in books from then on. All because of the timely intervention of my wife I was
back into my groove. And boy it felt so wonderful to settle down with a book
amid the din and fury of Corporate life. Meanwhile, she also started reading to
keep herself occupied when I was with a book. I should say I was pretty
impressed with her reading speed for someone who never pursued it as a hobby.
It was 20 years after “The God of Small Things”
was written by Arundhati Roy that I read it. The whole time I was wondering as
to what took me so long read this fine piece of literature. I loved it so much
that my wife pre ordered the latest book by the same author ”The Pursuit of
Happiness” even before its release. It was a first for me where I got to read a
newly released book thanks to her. At work after moving into a new team, during
my first interaction with my Senior Manager who is based out of Brazil, he
happened to mention that he had read the former book and loved it. I told him
that I came from a place that is just about 100 km from the town Ayemenem where
the Novel was set. Ms Roy had managed to paint quite a vivid picture of Kerala
in the mind of someone half way across the world, a testimony of her
brilliance. That was enough for him to understand very well as to why I had an anglicized
name and my background without any further explanation required from my side.
Slowly I started to read more and more books by
different authors. I also got in the habit of binge reading the books of an
author whose book I liked. This happened with the authors Khaled Hosseini,
Jhumpa Lahiri, Paulo Coelho, Gabriel Garcia Marques among others. “A Suitable
Boy” by Vikram Seth which I completed reading recently on the recommendation of
a dear friend with 1350 pages is till date the biggest book that I have ever
read. I got to say this reading has its own advantages. Take the case when I
was doing my MBA course we used to get Case Studies to read and analyse which
ran into a good number of pages. My peers always used to complain about this
especially during exams saying that such big case studies would eat away most
of their time.I realized that I was always cool with it because my reading speed was quite good thanks to my habit.
Fast forward a few years into the future
and I can sense the feeling of amusement
in my son’s face when he is going to read from my Personal Journal that ‘Love
in the Time of Cholera’ by Gabriel Garcia Marques was the book that I was
reading at the time of his birth. At that time when I used to accompany my wife
for regular checkups I made it a point to carry with me this book so that I
could kill time while we are waiting for something or the other. I will not
forget the bewildered expression in my wife’s face when I entered the labor
room with the book in my hand. She is like “Are you going to read the book when
I am in so much pain”. I promptly removed the book from her sight.
P.S:If you liked reading chek out a similar post in the topic by clicking the link below.
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P.S:If you liked reading chek out a similar post in the topic by clicking the link below.
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