DEC POST 3 : Day 3 Of Self Challenge

OF NOVELS, CHILDHOOD AND IMAGINATION RUNNING WILD

I remember mom bringing books for me to instil the reading habit during my childhood. I preferred english literature. Most of my time was spent in watching cartoon network and disney cartoons. My friends at school always talked about Shaktiman and other cartoons on DD. I was too engrossed with cartoon network and the Disney characters fascinated me. Shaktiman was never my cup of tea which the other kids enjoyed. I still don’t understand what was so great about it which every kid enjoyed at that time. I never fancied it. Neither do I understand the craze for daily hindi soap operas and why they get such high TRP. It is one’s individual choice I guess and I do not like to follow the crowd.

My actual novel reading began when I was in 3rd or 4th grade to be precise. Before that, I mostly read fairy tales and watched cartoons. That was my entertainment.  I didn’t take book reading seriously and watching Tom and Jerry, Captain Planet among other cartoons was my favorite passtime after school in the afternoon.

I once found two copies of Famous Five at my cousin’s place. The books looked fat and big. Voila!! It was a “Novel”. Weeee… I had found a “NOVEL”! The ones which I had seen before were fat and covers were dull and boring.. “Ewwww!! They are meant for adults which I would not understand”, was my thinking. But this novel was meant for people like me, I felt, because it had picture of few teens (or children ?  I didn’t know then) on it. And the title was cool too. “ Five on a Smuggler’s top”. Well, well, well… I should make an attempt at reading it. Atleast I can boast among friends that I am reading a novel. And I grabbed the two copies.  The other name was even better. “Five go on a hike together”. And the front cover was so tempting.

Back then, I had never heard about Famous Five. My mom would bring books which she found suitable for me. When she realised I would only read english stories, she started buying Cinderella and other fairy tales. But now I had found a book which seemed to promise me adventure.

I began reading the “Five at the Smuggler’s Top” book from the Famous Five series. It began with the introduction of characters and the “Kirrin Cottage”, the five assembling at the cottage, yummy food and the story went on. I was engrossed in reading and didn’t realise when the adventure began. I was actually hooked on to a book for the first time in my life. Cool!! I thought. I was actually living a story.

I still remember an incident which happened while reading this novel. It was around three in the afternoon and my mom was asleep. I was sitting opposite to our bedroom door and was engaged in reading the book. The story had reached a stage when someone was hiding behind curtain of a window of a tower or something like that and someone else was waiting. It was a tense situation in the novel and my dad opened the bedroom door which made me jump with fright. I had never been so much involved in reading a book. And thus began my reading spree.

I started reading other novels of the Famous Five series and the Hardy Boys. With every story I read, I would actually get into the story. Every word and every sentence would transform into living reality before my eyes. My imagination would be at its peak. The words transformed itself into a living picture and would raise goosebumps when there was an adventurous twist to the tale. The cool breeze, the sinister nature of the still water, all came alive within my mind and I was transported into a different world. Books actually made me think and created a reality in my mind.

That is how I believe I got hooked onto books and became a voracious reader. With time, I started reading more serious novels but the childhood novels and the imagination that ran wild and creative will always be different. The magic that children novels created inside my mind made my imagination flow and somehow drew me into the world of writing.

P.S. Today I started reading the Famous Five again. That is the reason I blogged about my reading habit. This blog post is unedited and has ample errors I guess. Bear with me :)