A world of Books and a company of words

It started when I was studying third standard in Thirukkovilur.

It was a friday evening, in the year 1993 (I dont remember the month).  I dropped my overweighing school bag in one corner and rushed to get rid of the uniform thing.   My mom was busy in the kitchen making coffee.  The aroma of the coffee always reminds me that everything is OK at home and it sort of rejunuvates the tiresome typical school boy in me.

It was a melancholy evening for me, though the following Saturday and Sunday are holidays. I thought "Oh! wat to do with my time in hand? I have no homework to do, no exams approaching, I have two days holdiay, Tomorrow I will go and play hide n seek in the temple backyard, Sunday, I will watch TV and play cricket....All set for two days...But what exactly should I do now? Ok, will try something new..."  and Suddenly my English Text book fell in my view... A week back my English teacher had read us a story from that book. I found it interesting at that time. I was keenly listening. Even as a child, I remember myself as a moody and reserved kind of a schoolboy. But inside I always looked for something interesting to wonder upon.

Soothingly warm steam from the coffee with its aroma relaxed me and I was just reading the story which my teacher read to our class. The story was about an adventurous boy who goes on a tour with his uncle and cousin, accidentally finds treasure box from a haunted house after escaping various dangers.
Exactly that was the time when my mind got haunted by haunted things.

From then on, whenever I felt boredom, loneliness, sad, happy, or whatever feeling which can occur to an 8 year old friendless moody kid, I started reading stories which are in some way either adventurous or ghostly. Every bit of spare time I got, I entered into this imaginary world built of books.  Sitting in one place in my room, I travelled to Arabia alongwith Sindbad, got shipwrecked with him and brought back treasures to home, Went to wonderland with Alice, Played the prince in Cinderella and Sleeping beauty, acted the invisible friend to Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, and lots more... I also picked up my classmate girls as cinderella, snow white or Rebecca Thatcher... No they didnt know till date that I picked them up as my heroines in my imaginations.... All these I did, sitting in a corner.... I enjoyed that fantasy. These characters soothed my friendless soul. I started building a dreamworld with these characters.

And till today it continues... Very recently, I read The Scarlet Pimpernal.... And it continues to be my all time favourite...You know what... Sometimes I try to imitate Percy Blakeney but only when Im alone. Otherwise I dont want to lose my self. Sometimes I even thought, what if I became a split personality. But I believe nothing happened as yet. Now, I dont want to miss the theme. I enjoyed so much these books and the wor(l)ds in it that I became addicted to them.

Once when I was sitting with Sherlock Holmes in the Baker Street, London in the year 2009, my friend suddenly woke me up. "Oh! It was just a dream good God", I said to myself.

Whenever I find that there is no interesting books around, I started writing. Writing reduced my stress, brough me down and made corrections when I was too much flying high, and brought me up when I was drowning deep. When writing, I started to write for me and only me. The words proved to be best companions when lonely. Most of the times I dont know what to write, but still I write about the vagueness of my mind. After writing I feel like the burden shifted to the paper from my drooping shoulders. Days passed in the company of words and books. Paper became my dumb companion, Words became my wise friend and books my world!!!  This world of books is so virtual that the real pain also seemed to be virtual. What is more interesting is that the real world itself started seeming virtual.

Days rolled on like that and lately, I started picturizing myself as a charecter in this book world. I started observing myself very keenly, standing outside of me, like an author studying his prospective characters from real life. I started thinking my day-to-day events as pages in a Book. It felt like I was not living my life but just filling the pages in my lifebook. Allowing God to make a novel with me the protagonist. It passed thru various chapters say thriller, romantic love story and comedy.


I am loving it too. With the very thought that its just happening in a story written by the Greatest author, life moves on.... It will....