Books have passed on through the ages and still and will always play a vital part in life. They create moments and memories that mold our very personalities. They contain precious and invaluable pearls of wisdom, and through every moment in our lives there is a book that holds a message to guide us. Books are great companions.
I don’t exactly remember when I caught the reading bug. Maybe it was because of my mother who read out books to me everyday ever since when I could sit still and perhaps even before that. She used to take me to a library where I felt engulfed with vellichor. libraries hold a special place in my heart. They’re filled with thousands of old books that perhaps you’ll never have time to read, each littered with thoughts left just as they were on the day they were captured.
My parents encouraged my reading, but at around age 8 I took off and surpassed their reading interests and volume and kept going. I remember sitting enthralled letting the words wash around me. These books created a magical world for me. A magical world familiar with every reader. A magical world where I too could do wonders.
And from those very moments- Reading became a part of me. Books were my life. Asking me if I loved reading was like asking me if i liked to breathe. I devoured books after books. It was a family joke that I read everything I came across. My grandparents would (and still do ) hide all their books when I came so that I would actually talk to them instead of reading all day. From Enid Blytons ,to fantasy books, to comics and even encyclopedias, I read everything. And by gosh, I loved every moment.
Books continue to be an important part of my everyday life. Everyday, even for those drab days when a new book is nowhere near( oh fellow readers , you know those days), I read, sometimes just go over those same pages again and again reliving moments. And these books are magic for me. When Im upset there is a book that makes me smile, when Im angry I have a book that calms me down, there is a beautiful thriller novel I posses which I save for the days Im bored- It’s absolute food for the mind and manages to liven up my day each time.
As time changes, reading has also changed. Most of my age, rarely read.For the limited ones who do, they do so on perhaps a laptop,or a kindle or a tab. As for me,there is none of this, for me there is no greater pleasure that cuddling up under a blanket on a rainy day with a book in my hand. There is no greater joy when the aroma of paper, as i turn those crinkly yellowed pages, lost in a world of my own….
-Adyesha Singhdeo
Meraki 