Books.... my silent friends... my 3am pals... my lonely-in-mumbai companions. i always loved reading and hoped that one day my kids would also find solace in the pages of a juicy thriller. its another story that my boys never took up that hobby. but seriously.. all of us have sooooo many books that have influenced us and which we have enjoyed/cried with/left in between. we've come across books that have completely absorbed us... so much that we even forget our duties... at least i have at times forgotten the food on the stove or let tea go cold bcoz i dint want to waste that precious second lifting a tea cup.
here are some books that impressed me & changed me. As a kid i use to read small lady bird books and my favourite was Thumbelina. Gosh! how i loved her. how i wished i could soar with her, sitting on that bird.. up.. up.. away! the way she tried to leave the mole who lived underground... probably inspired me to be independent early on.
then came Sidney Sheldon, the master story teller. so many nights are dedicated to him... books that i just could not put down even after lights out. Judith Krantz and her novel Scruples completely changed me and made me realise that there was a world beyond my lane which was completely different from the cocoon i lived in. the Winthrop family and their millions made me aspire higher goals. i couldnt get over the way the protagonist rebelled and turned her life around despite all odds against her. i was completely swept in by the shopping, the clothes, the jewels.... i guess today when i walk into a shop and flash my card (albeit debit card) i can feel a bit like all those glamorous women from the novels.
then came motherhood and Dr. Spock's - Baby and Child care was a saviour like none other... that reminds me.. i will have to re-read it again coz now i am a mother of adolescent children and God... do i need all the advice i can get!!!!!
as maturity set in, i moved on to philosophical books and the only one that did touch me was The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. this book radiated so much positivity into my day-to day life that sometimes i think.. is it really as simple as that?!?!
and finally... how can i end this without writing about 50 Shades of Grey? i almost passed it up... but happened to read a review about it in a local newspaper. just the first 50 pages and i was hooked booked and cooked by mr. grey... or should i say... tied, gagged and spanked?!?! i dont know who E L James is... but whoever you are and where ever you are.. god bless you. the fist night i read it till 3am... then i carried it every where with me.. not wanting to waste even i minute of free time. some of my friends criticised it... but i just loved it!!!! to hell with it.. call it soft porn, call it sleazy, call it whatever you like... but the way the characters are detailed.. their psyche their fears, their lust... i felt it all and yearned for more.
i cant wait for the next novel to touch my heart again. no matter what advances take place in the world today... the smell of books cannot be replaced by the clinical swipe of your finger while turning pages of an e-book. life seems incomplete without a book for a companion... a friend who will share my deepest desires and hopes and dreams. a friend who will not question why... a friend who will not feel bad that i did not call (read it) for days... my unconditional life companions. yes, they will never replace my living friends.. but neither will my living friends ever be able to take their place.
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