My first book

It was one of the regular days at School-except that, since we had successfully made it to sixth standard, we were provided with a library card each which entitled us to borrow a book for one week from the library. Till then( that is till we were in fifth standard) all we did in the library period was either to read tinkle, if we are lucky enough to lay our hands on an unread one or play in the play ground provided our librarian permitted it. My favourite comic used to be "Kalia the crow", the second place going to "Tantri the mantri". Most of the time I would not be so lucky as to get a tinkle and I would look for a magazine called "Misha" - which used to have short stories from around the globe, and would settle down with it.

It was not like I was new to the reading habit. I got my first "Gokulam" when I was in second standard. We were living in our village then. I used to go to a School in the neighbouring village. I remember how I showed off by reading the magazine sitting at the platform(thinnai) at the entrance of the house.After that there was change of schools  - my third and fourth standard was in a school in kancheepuram. It was only in 5th standard that I was exposed to the library. And since all my friends used to read only comics - I ended up following them sincerely.

All of us were excited in getting a library card. The moment the bell rang for the Library period, I rushed and grabbed the most recent copy of tinkle, much to the envy of my friends and got it issued. I was very much pleased to have grabbed the new book. I was so excited that I started reading it in the time gap between each period and during lunch break. It so happened that I completed reading and re-reading the book before the school hours that day. All the excitement which I had that morning was gone. None of my friends were willing to exchange that for the book that they had got issued. I was disappointed.

Those days I used to attend tuition classes after school. Some of my classmates were my tuition mates too. There were two boys - Satish and Chaitanya and a girl called Gayatri. Since we attended the same tuition classes, I was friends with Satish and Chaitanya. Gayatri had taken a comic which I had already read. So I could not exchange my book with hers. Chaitanya had taken a book on astronomy, and he was already feeling awful for taking it. Satish had taken a book whose cover had a few kids with an aeroplane. He was fascinated by the picture of aeroplane, and  had got the book issued. He was regretting his decison. Both Chaitanya and Satish were interested in exchanging their book with mine. I was not at all interested to read about the different moons of jupiter or to know how much distant is pluto from the earth. So I was not interested in getting the book from Chaitanya. And I was equally dicey about taking the book from Satish - it was a 200 pages book and I was doubtful about my capability of reading so many pages. Since I did not much choice, I gave my book to Satish and asked him to keep his book with himself. But he insisted that I take it. I took the book without much interest.

On reaching home from the tuition classes and after fininshing my home work for the day. I had no choice except to glance at the book. I too liked the picture on the cover. Slowly, I started reading. I was about the story of a bunch of kids and one of them has a toy plane as a a gift. I was so absorbed that I read the book to completion through the night. It was my first complete book and I had finished it in a day. I could not describe the satisfaction I felt then.

That book was Enid Blyton's "Three Cheers Secret Seven"And the journey of devouring books started then. I started looking up all the Enid Blyton's books in the library and read them. I got my friends who were not interested using their library cards to take books of my choice, so that I could read them after I completed mine.

Thanks to Satish - I had stumbled upon the discovery that I am a voracious reader.