World of Books

orchid said it, sm said it, tharini said it and STS said it… And they tempted me into saying it too. About my favourite memory of being read.., rather I take the liberty to modify the question..my favourite memories with books…

As far as I remember, I have liked to read books by myself. I never had the patience to listen to the story being told especially as I was a real fast reader and liked to picture the story and the characters myself as the story went by. I liked and still like to listen to stories being told extempore and my favourites are the “khichdi” and the “king with goat like ears” story that my grandma used to relate to me. Also the stories of Ramayana – which I was not supposed to listen or tell while eating as it was a religious story. I remember a few episodes of my mom reading to us from the book champak. It was a story of a rat and her babies and while my mom was reading it out to us we realized that the last page was torn and therefore we never came to know the proper ending. Of course my mom made her own version which would have been really obvious to her but till late in the night I was worried about the correct ending and was questioning my mom…I still hate it if a story remains unfinished.
As time went on, my love for stories and books deepened. We were regular subscribers to champak and almost every month my parents used to buy Amar Chitra Katha books. Alternately in English & Hindi. If my sister managed to lay her hands on the book first, she used to read the entire book aloud, included the jokes. What a spoil sport! I used to move around with my ears closed until she finished.
My first Enid Blyton was Toyland Tales and in my living memory of it half the pages were torn and all the pictures were smeared with crayons. My mom might have invested in it sooner than required!
I remember completing the Ramayana (Amar Chitra Katha) when I was in class I, and feeling a great sense of pride as that was the thickest Amar Chitra Katha I had ever read
I got introduced to the school library in class V or VI and from then on all the Enid Blytons. Nancy Drews, Hardy Boys, 3- investigators, Asimov were duly read- beg, borrow, exchange, buy at shops or 2nd hand book stalls.
Jeffery Archers, Sidney Sheldons, Danielle Steels happened in plus 2. Rebecca became my favourite after +2, and Mills & Boon happened with addiction in post graduation and Harry Potter from last couple of years. Don’t laugh, the progress was reverse.
Today I try to go for quality stuff like O Henrys, Sherlock Holmes and other literary authors.
I read while eating, while sitting in the loo, while traveling, before sleeping, right after I wake up, in the office during lunch, and mannerlessly when I am on a social visit… you name the occasion and I can be found reading. I drool at the sight of books.
My brother who is much younger to we sisters, too inherited the love of books and I can vividly remember him reading his comics right after he woke up and while eating- exactly like me. He used to temper his conversation with excerpts from the comics like if I do not eat pulses will somewhere some volcano erupt (from chacha chaudhry comics- when sabu gets angry somewhere some volcano erupts). He even had memorised entire comic story- Billu's Cake and could recite it extempore.
I have prayed throughout my pregnancy and still do, that let Ojas & Tejas love books, as much as and much much more than me. To make them read, I picked up a local publication of Alphabets – the hard board variety. Both simply loved it- they liked to sit on it, bite it, pull it, turn the pages, tear it and mangle. In the last 7 months all the pages have separated. Whenever I attempted to read them I could not move beyond D and they used to get bored.
2 months ago my cousins gifted them an Usborne book -the touch and feel kind, Alphabet book and Animal book among a few others. I started with the animal books and since both needed to hold one book each, I also took out the alphabet book. Along with that I also took out the animal sound puzzle in which once the jigsaw piece makes contact with the board, the animal sound is heard. I took them through each animal picture along with interactive sounds. Initially they just observed and rapidly turned the pages away and threw the puzzle pieces. Instead of fitting the puzzle piece on the slot, they discovered that it was sufficient to press the button on the board itself for the sounds to come. Gradually, they began to insist that the puzzle piece should be placed correctly in the slot and everytime they managed to do it correctly I clapped heartily for them. I noticed that Ojas likes to keep the lion page opened on every book he sees- he actually looks for the lion and keeps that open. He likes to sit on it and go on all fours imitating it and even growls like the lion. Tejas likes to see the cat and the dog and both say Titar ghrooooo.. for Tiger. I introduced the Usborne book to them last week and took them through the animals only. Now they can point out correctly at the animals.
I felt that the everyday reading to them with actions and sounds, the sound puzzle and showing them examples of stuffed toys, actual animal wherever possible – dog, cat, fish, cow etc helped in some sort of way in the progress. Last month I was in despair that they don’t seem to progress in the book department and neither do they point put to the body parts. All of a sudden from Friday they have started pointing at the nose and ears and yesterday I caught Tejas putting his fingers into his ears when the cooker was whistling. Goodness knows how he made the connect!
Courtsey- CHBM , Kane Miller