My journey as a reader

“if Sumathi can survive in her husband’s home under the scrutiny of her mother in law.”,

“whether Alice would  accept Sunny kutty’s love for her“,

“what if  Amina’s father finds out about her plans to elope with Shajahan”

And so much more !

As soon as the newspaper boy came into sight on Thursday mornings, my brother and I raced  towards  him in  top speed to grab our weekly copy . It always ended up in a physical fight  over the magazine.  The proud ‘winner’ got back with the magazine of which  the pages were already torn  out in the fight. This was followed by an onslaught of verbal abuse from the frustrated ‘loser’ .Many a time the drill end up with  our father’s entry into the scene followed by a well deserved slap that we graciously accepted. Thus we successfully managed to test our father’s patience threshold which led him  to the  cancellation of  subscription without any notice.

I had never envisioned myself as a reader and therefore visited  my college library  during my Bachelor studies . Sadly, I did not realise the importance of extra reading those days. The ones who had shown interest in books belonged to the so-called “nerd” group which I didn’t want to be part of. Later I joined for Masters in a different college and noticed  that my friends  visited the  library  so often which compelled me to check out what it offered . Though I used to read the books  as part of my studies , I started feeling the joy of reading when I was introduced to Enid Blyton’s books ( kids / teenage) at the age of 21.

My habit of reading had diminished remarkably after I completed my studies. When I wanted to  refresh my reading skills again few years back , I  found difficultly in choosing the right book for me. Then I recalled my memories with those beloved  ‘painkillis ’(romantic novels)  which made me consider the books of  the contemporary writer of romance, Nicholas Sparks. But very soon,  I discovered that my interest in Romance has flown out of my window , moreover,  I’m no more in my teens but in my late 30’s.  Anyway, Sparks’s stories have helped me  to be friends with books again .

I’m not a voracious reader. My  experience says, it’s never late for anyone to cultivate the habit of reading and  it’s just a matter of finding the book of your interest. As Jhumpa Lahiri quoted in her book ‘ The name sake ’, “That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” And, I find it so true. Whichever books or great authors you come across,  you should never look down on  Malayalam ‘literary’ works,  our  ‘painkilis’!