4. Transmutation

Tirus told me the other day, “Mom, why don’t you buy books from Flipkart.com?” Disarming question for a 6 year old! But I guess kids are far smarter than what we were as children. We were treated like kids. We now have to talk and behave with kids in a much more matured manner.

But Tirus, my dearest son, I am like that only. I might sound like a person way behind everyone’s league, but what the heck! I love picking up books from the bookstore...smelling the rows and rows of books lined up on the shelves and just flipping through a book, which I would probably never buy. Just like that! The very feel of pages, touching them, thumbing through them and then sniffing in between the pages just to smell them. Oh, heaven! The most delirious feeling ever!

I remember Sangita, my neighbour from Shillong, was a girl with special qualities. She would invariably wake me up with her first ‘Sa’, which was louder than the ‘Re, Ga, Ma.....’, around six in the morning. Even though I would try hard to rock myself back to sleep with her crooning, Mom would come, as is ritualistic, stand next to my bed and in a voice too loud and stern for my comfort, say, “There see, Sangita is up and practicing her singing. And here, you are still sleeping. Get up right now!” And with eyes half closed, to catch a last glimpse of the handsome man in my dreams, I would woefully drag myself out of bed.

So Sangita made it a habit to regularly come to my place whenever there was a holiday, sit cross-legged in the living room sofa and read one of my many books in one and a half hours flat. Wow! I have never completed a book that fast. I take time, read, think, analyse, ponder, dream and leaf through the pocket dictionary and the big fat Thesaurus once in a while. I love it this way! Even now, I take time to complete a book.

My reading habit was serious though as a girl. I remember, when I came for my holidays to Guwahati, I would stack up my room with books and comics brought from my cousin’s place. I would read them morning, day and night. And when I ran out of stock, I would re-read them. The Famous Fives, The Secret Sevens, The Naughty Girl Series, The Brer Rabbit Series; the list was endless. And the best part was my birthday gifts from my friends and family were all books. My joy knew no bounds!

I would wake up in the morning and even before I brushed, I would complete a couple of pages of a book. Then, after breakfast, after lunch, in the evening and after dinner. Mom would keep reprimanding me, “You are reading so much, if something happens to your eyes, just see what I do to you.” I did have to take power glasses when I was in Class 6 but thankfully the doc said my myopic condition was purely hereditary and had nothing to do with my reading habit. And then I started reading with double the spirit ‘cause now Mom would have nothing to say!

The habit has stayed on. Now I have books near my bed, in the living room, in the washroom, in the study-room, in the veranda, in my car and in my hand-bag. I know that even if I can catch up on two or three pages when I am waiting at the dentists, it gives me an exhilarating feeling; an amazing feeling of freedom! Freedom to transmute myself at will!