"Once a Reader, is always a Reader"

Just finished reading a book. Just finished reading about its author. Just decided which book of his i am going to read next "Veronika decides to die" by Paulo Coehlo

Books have once again become a part of my life. My reading, i believe, has also reached a different level.

My first book - "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". As a kid i have read it religiously over and over again at my aunt's house.Knowing every line and imagining the 3 bears looking into their bowls of porridge and wondering how sweet it would have tasted. My journey into the world of books has begun.

From that point onwards, i used to read - read - read and read.Every year before school begins, i would finish reading all my English prose and non-de-tale books. And buy books from the Book Bus with little care for how much i was spending.

My father ensured a supply for my reading. The Junior encyclopedia, Amar Chitra Katha, Ramayana, Sri Krishna, Fairy Tales, Gokulam magazine, Reader's Digest and so on. I was glued to books by Enid Blyton. Had one book and would re-read it. The one with the Golliwog doll. And most of all, i read every Shrerlock Holmes book i could lay my hands on.

The books gave me a lot of things, good language, imagination and the sights and sounds to experience from my home itself.

I fell in love with the Scarlet Pimpernel and felt sad for Oliver Twist. I wished to meet Olivia and tell her how cute her love story is.

I will never forget "Ebeneezer the never could sneezer" or what i read about Aung Sang Syu Ki. I even used to read Essays from small books. Reading, never stopped till one fine day.

I do not recollect when i stopped reading. Even when in 1st year college, when i read my first Sydney Sheldon - for long believing the author was female, i used to read quiet a lot.

When i joined professional studies, the distance between books and me grew. It started with the laziness to read my subjects and ended as a laziness towards books itself.

In the years that followed - almost 4 full years i hadn't touched anything but subject books before exams. Remember reading a Mills n Boons book in between. But the gap was now too wide. For the once voracious reader i was, it could be compared to a hunger strike.

My redeeming moment came when I attended an interview. He asked me about my hobbies. I casually remarked that music is a hobby and that i was once a voracious reader. To which he didn't agree. He simply said, "Once a Reader, is always a Reader".

It struck a blow to me. In all those years, sitting on my lazy bum, i had stopped fueling myself with the one thing that had given me so much. Books. I had forsaken it. I really couldn't understand why i stopped something that i was so passionate about. And then that day itself i made my mind.

On the way back, stopped at a second hand book store and bought one book and broke my fast. Now i am hungry for more.

My Childhood Fav books - "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" - atleast up to Class III. "Ganga" - the story about the descent of the river from the heavens above - till date a favourite