The enchanted world of books
‘Oye, come here,’ I called out to the boy brusquely in my inimitable style. The puny child, all of three years, coyly retreated back a few steps before scurrying as fast as his tiny legs could carry him into the safety of his abode. I can safely bet that I have a way with children. I try to draw them into conversation by provoking them with a tricky poser, one that puts them on the backfoot and makes them scratch their little brains to wriggle out of the tight corner I place them in. And sometimes, they come up with such out-of-box responses that leave you wonder-struck and amused.
However, my not-so-affable demeanour, perhaps, intimidated the boy. I don’t remember how we got talking. It was, probably, over the vibrantly coloured picture books I flashed before him. Curiosity got the better of him, and he took the bait that lured him into my den. A den full of books! He scoured through my collection with typical childlike wonderment. Then I threw a googly at him. I retold a Jataka tale from an Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) comic animatedly, replete with hand gestures, voice modulation, meaningful pauses, and graphic facial expressions. And he was bowled over! My charm offensive worked, and we bonded over books. Books can do that to you—help you make unlikely friends.
My love affair with books began early, courtesy of my father, who owned a fairly decent collection. My brother and I would snuggle to his sides as he would narrate stories to us. That’s the abiding memory I have of my late father. He was an epitome of patience, as he would read out the same ACK or Tinkle every evening after a tiring day at work till the next edition came out. He didn’t get bored, and neither did we.
Such was the charm of the surreal world of kings and queens, gods and demons, scholars and saints, talking flora and fauna woven in each vivid frame, painstakingly hand sketched by Ram Waeerkar and C M Vitankar, the two master illustrators at ACK. We were fed a steady dose of storybooks till we began to devour voluminous tomes of our own volition. Books can do that to you—become a friend you can relate to.
My toddler son would sit mesmerised, flipping through the picturesquely illustrated National Geographics that lay strewn around. As he now works as an environmental scientist now 20 years hence, I would like to believe those volumes of second-hand NatGeos I bought for him after a hard bargain had a definitive role in his career choice. Books can do that to you, get you a lifelong companion, as in an abiding passion or a career option.