Finishing my copy of the intimidating Shantaram, I yearned to grab my slippers and rush to the library and issue a new book, when I recalled that I had never issued the book from a library in the first place. Owing to a paucity of libraries in my locality, I have been reduced to buying books online, which takes away half the fun of reading. But this is not how things always were.As a child, I would eagerly wait for Friday, the day when my mother, a leading radiologist in the country, would take out time from her busy schedule and take me to the neighbourhood library.
I read the exploits of The Secret Seven, The Five Find-Outers, and the Famous Five, and going through the Encyclopedia Britannica. Entering adolescence, I enjoyed the adventures of The Hardy Boys, the heart-warming and inspirational stories in the Chicken Soup series, and Tales of the American West by Louis L’Amour. The limit of two books each week was never enough, and I looked forward to the weekly visit to my school library, where I came across the literary geniuses of J K Rowling, and Robert Ludlum. Few would understand the thrill of having their very own library card, which had the unparalleled power to get books!
Outgrowing the neighbourhood library, I found my ever-supportive mother taking me to the newly opened library by the British Council of India, and it was the best thing I had laid my eyes on! One could literally spend a day there, with a separate, colourful section for children and young adults, a relatively mundane-looking section for adults, an array of sophisticated computers for research and browsing through e-magazines, and a spectacular collection of English DVDs. Memories of watching the sharp Miss Marple and the peculiar Hercule Poirot come alive on our television screen are still fresh in my mind, for I had to beg my parents to buy a video player for this very reason.
As a young professional, I stopped reading due to a paucity of time for books, and it is with much shame that I admit that once a voracious reader who could devour a 1,500 page book in just five days, I went an entire year without touching a single book. It was only when my best friend, an economist, writer, and a voracious reader himself, pointed out that one will never find time for these things but will need to make time that I found myself following his suggestion of reading at least one book every month. There has been no looking back ever since, and I hope that reading becomes a habit once again. Until then, I shall strive to regain my lost glory as a voracious reader.