Do I Read?

For starters, my parents never really encouraged us to do anything. In my family we were always at liberty to do whatever we felt like doing and because we had such less exposure to the bad outside world, both my brother and I grew up pretty normal and ordinary. At the time that I was growing up in Dubai, it boasted of no public libraries at all (unlike what it is today!!). I don’t know at what precise age I realised that I like reading ‘cause I don’t ever remember my parents buying me a book unless I asked for it. I guess, it started with Amar Chitra Kathas which I picked up during my visits to Kerala, then graduated to Malory Towers from the school library and finally to Mills & Boon while at college in Manipal.

My friend Shalini and I were members of this library called Canara Lending Library and while Shalini was chatting with the shopkeeper (can hardly call the guy a librarian!!) I would shove four or five books into my bag. The idea was to keep the books and never ever have to return them again. It’s funny that we never got caught even once as I am sure that we must have stolen at least 100 books from there. Now it sounds all so stupid and unnecessary.

After Mills & Boon, I discovered self-help books. By this time, I was experimenting with life and was in full throes of its sorrows and these books kept me going (showed me that there was some hope) even though they never really helped me much. Towards the end of my rather painful period in life (that story is for another post), I stopped reading. I didn’t need to escape into a fantasy world…….

Then DH came into my life and he talked about authors that I had never ever heard of before. You see DH is into arts, literature and world cinema – period. To me he is the ultimate. And when I married and came to the UK, I found out that DH actually has a study room, a room full of books spread across three wide walls. Wow…this was even better than Canara Lending Library, only this time I did not have to steal the books.

Though I like to sound like a simpleton, I am pretty much a snob. So while people talk about XYZ author, I can easily say that my favourite author is Arturo Perez Reverte. But it’s my rather short memory that stops me from being so boastful as I just can’t seem to remember a story for too long (I know I have said this earlier).

I now have a bookshelf of my own in our study room and the irony of it is that after all these years I still have those Amar Chitra Kathas (more than 20 years old now) and the stolen Mills & Boons.