My Books And My World
I don't remember when my addiction to books developed, but I guess it would have developed its roots during the Library Period back at my school (Our Lady Of Fatima High School) . We used to be provided one book to read in a week. And ofcourse that was too less to satisfy my hunger. I had to read atleast one everyday. I was definitely not brilliant in my academics, in fact I was sort of an average, but reading was defenitely a passion and my love for the English language was tremendous even in those days. I would finish that book in a matter of a couple of hours and then go for the books given to my friends, who did not like to read. Pretty soon, I would have finished all the good books distributed among my friends in my class.
Then during my junor college days, I would have a competition going on with my friends to the number of books we could read during our vaccations. The craze continued and soon, I read my first non-fiction book- Freedom At Midnight by Dominique La Pierre and Larry Collins. Needless to mention, I got hooked and I read that whole book in one sitting. I don't remember when I had lunch or dinner that day. All that happened somewhere during the different chapters of the book. After that book I almost left reading fiction except for an occassional John Grisham or Robin Cook.
My favourite books were ones related to History or Travel. I could drown myself and get transported to another world when I was reading the book and the book became my favourite companion in those days. Back then, I did not have the monetary resources to buy books. Now, when I have ample resources to buy these books, I have lost out on the time needed to read them. Oh ! what a predicament. The only time I find is when I indulge in my other passion - Travelling. But then as my financial position bettered over the years, travelling time became shorter as I changed my mode of transport from Railways to Airways.
This time when I went to Kerala, I had made up my mind to complete atleast two books, so my relatives complained that all they could see of me was the time when I came out of my room to grab some food or water or to stretch myself. For 10-15 days I stayed indoors reading books and then went out for small walks in the evening, through roads covered by a canopy of trees. Roads where the sunlight would not touch the ground even during the peak afternoon hours. All you could hear was the sound of crickets and chirping of birds. An occassional rabbit would go hopping past you, leaving you startled. Aah !! That was life at its best. It was then I realized that my life was so consumed by my work and my agressive approach towards my career, that I was actually feeling guilty about enjoying this solitude and bliss.
From the book lovers perspective, the city of Bombay would be very disappointing Is there a single book store on the lines of a Barnes & Nobles or a Powells. So I have to get the books that I have to read, on my visit to the USA or some other city. Nor do we get the good English Movies out here. As a world class city, we still have a very long way to go. Actually there're no world class cities in India and that's the plain truth.
Then during my junor college days, I would have a competition going on with my friends to the number of books we could read during our vaccations. The craze continued and soon, I read my first non-fiction book- Freedom At Midnight by Dominique La Pierre and Larry Collins. Needless to mention, I got hooked and I read that whole book in one sitting. I don't remember when I had lunch or dinner that day. All that happened somewhere during the different chapters of the book. After that book I almost left reading fiction except for an occassional John Grisham or Robin Cook.
My favourite books were ones related to History or Travel. I could drown myself and get transported to another world when I was reading the book and the book became my favourite companion in those days. Back then, I did not have the monetary resources to buy books. Now, when I have ample resources to buy these books, I have lost out on the time needed to read them. Oh ! what a predicament. The only time I find is when I indulge in my other passion - Travelling. But then as my financial position bettered over the years, travelling time became shorter as I changed my mode of transport from Railways to Airways.
This time when I went to Kerala, I had made up my mind to complete atleast two books, so my relatives complained that all they could see of me was the time when I came out of my room to grab some food or water or to stretch myself. For 10-15 days I stayed indoors reading books and then went out for small walks in the evening, through roads covered by a canopy of trees. Roads where the sunlight would not touch the ground even during the peak afternoon hours. All you could hear was the sound of crickets and chirping of birds. An occassional rabbit would go hopping past you, leaving you startled. Aah !! That was life at its best. It was then I realized that my life was so consumed by my work and my agressive approach towards my career, that I was actually feeling guilty about enjoying this solitude and bliss.
From the book lovers perspective, the city of Bombay would be very disappointing Is there a single book store on the lines of a Barnes & Nobles or a Powells. So I have to get the books that I have to read, on my visit to the USA or some other city. Nor do we get the good English Movies out here. As a world class city, we still have a very long way to go. Actually there're no world class cities in India and that's the plain truth.
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