Just My Musings

I once came across a book lover's post on social media about how unexpected it was for them to grieve so much over the deaths of fictional characters; to which someone had replied that it felt even more painful to hear those characters called 'fictional'. I found this oddly comforting - to know that there are fellow creatures who get as invested in the characters formed by the pages of a book, as I do. Literary characters do exist in the collective consciousness of bibliophiles around the world. We know and remember them from each of the different worlds in which we have sojourned through books, just as much as any of the real people we have met at different stages of our lives. It is as Dumbledore says - "Of course it's happening inside your head ... Why should that mean it's not real?" Only in this case, it is not merely a single person's head, it is a collection of ideas and memories that we share with the author as well as thousands of other read...

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an Austenite who has lost count of the number of rereads, must be in want of an alternative source of comfort. I write 'comfort', as that is the foremost sentiment, the most prominent and defining feeling I experience while reading her novels. Anyone with an affinity for the classics would vouchsafe his or her love for a hundred different works. But when it comes to the question of the particular set of books to which you instinctively and compulsively reach out while facing adversities, Austen staples have always been my go-to comfort reads. This is also precisely the reason for the  disapprobatory glance I steal at anyone who brushes the likes of Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility aside by categorising them as mere commonplace stories of romance.  In order to truly and fully appreciate an Austen novel, you need to be able to constantly read between the lines, as, in my opinion, subtlety is what governs her writing. Th...

To read or not to read - that can never be the question. The habit of reading regularly IS vital. Which is why I think we should never give children the idea that reading is nothing but another hobby. It is not like collecting stamps or playing chess, for us to have the option of not pursuing it if we are not interested. It is like brushing our teeth - we simply cannot be allowed a choice.  I observe many parents wondering how to get their kids to spend more time reading books. So much so that the complaint " my kid throws away the book in five minutes, nothing but the smartphone or the TV can engage his or her attention " has become as common as " my child does not like vegetables " used to be.  To all parents with similar worries on their minds, this page offers a list of suggestions that you could try. But before we get into that, I would like to state that I claim no expertise, but only experience, in this area. I am merely sharing some tips that I have followed...

The other day, in a bookshop, I saw a kid browsing eagerly through the comic and fantasy fiction sections, after which he picked a few of the books, when his mother came upto him and replaced them in the rack saying he should read "real books". She tried to draw his attention to the non-fiction section, chose an autobiography and read something off the dust jacket, with the kid all the while gazing at it with as much distaste as if it were a jug of bitter gourd juice.  This instantly reminded me of the time during my pre-teen years when one of the adult guests at our house read the back-cover blurb of a Robin Cook thriller I had borrowed from the library, and advised me not to read "such books".  It also brought forward several other such trivial memories to my mind, including the time when my son was six, when he had found an old book of mine on black holes. He became very curious to know what it was all about, had flipped through it and read some of the beautifull...

I have found solace in classic literature at every juncture of my life, under every kind of circumstance and every state of mind. These books offer me the opportunity of a friendship with the intelligent, elegant and insightful mind of a talented soul of taste and feeling, long gone, yet magically preserved in its written word. To me, in general, no experience can be more rewarding than reading, and I have read works of every genre with equal enthusiasm - from Dickens to Dan Brown, from Jane Austen to Jeffrey Archer - and works depicting varied subjects, from poetic charm to political chicanery.  But after all my reading excursions, I always have to come back to the olden day classics, like a child to a mother after all the outdoor play with friends. Irrespective of the predominant mood reigning my mind - joy, gloom, listlessness, quirkiness, playfulness, complacency, disappointment - delving into the pages of a classic, brings about an immediate calmness and composure.  Relis...