Books are a man’s best friend. This adage has been proven
time and again. Any one born in the pre-digital era will list out their
collection of books and their favourite authors in a jiffy. During my growing years
(80s-90s), Panchatantra, Amar Chitra Katha, Hitopadesha, Champak and Readers
Digest, were my best friends during train travel and vacations.
I don’t exactly recollect how and when I fell in love with
the print for the first time, but I do remember when I did, it was meant to be
a forever bond! Whether I was happy, sad or angry, I would just go to my corner
and read my favourite book. I still remember the morning of my Xth board exams.
I had an unfinished novel in my hand. Such was my love for books!
Other days, after school hours and play time, at least half
an hour was reserved for reading aloud newspaper stories and headlines and
sometimes, solving an occasional Crossword. Those were the Doordarshan days
when the television channels would blank out automatically at 10! These days,
it is unimaginable to even manually switch off the TV by the same time. Today
being World Books Day, these memories got refreshed.
Now, I try to recreate the same magic for my toddler who “miraculously”
(will explain that in a bit) loves listening to stories being read aloud to him
before sleeping. The reason I said “miraculously” is because my toddler still
has a soft corner for the idiot box that I am trying to replace with books. I
am confident that slowly yet steadily, he will also make books his best friend
just like I did!
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