Pleasures of Reading

The lightning crackled and the whole sky light up brilliantly like a flash. In the few visible seconds, through the rain, I saw the horrid face of the wolf like creature running straight towards me. Terrified by the sight I sped up and kept on running. I ran for my life. I ran like the wind my legs moving faster than I had ever thought possible. The visibility was very bad with the rainfall becoming heavier and heavier. I turned left, dodging a tree which suddenly loomed up in front of me. Now I turned right, and then left again dodging trees. Suddenly I found myself sailing smoothly through the air and then, with a thud, my feet touched the ground again and I continued running. “Hoooowl”, I heard the creature, he was right behind me, he hadn’t lost track of me.

A cold wind came and hit me. I shivered and slowed down a little. I got goosebumps as I thought what would happen if the wolf caught me. “You can’t slow down, whatever happens you can not slow down. Speed up, speed up!! You have to get away and the only chance is if you speed up and hide somewhere.” I told myself. I had absolutely no idea in what direction I was running. “Am I running towards the end of the forest or am I going deeper into it?” I had no idea. I glanced back for a second, “Where is that thing? Did I lose it finally?” I couldn’t see it anywhere. I might have lost it, but I had no clue. Suddenly I saw a hut come up in between the trees. Who would live here in this horrid place? I did not know. But that was the only place where I could hide from the wolf. Reaching the hut I entered. It was very dark in there. Somehow I locked the door, and fumbling in the darkness I shut the windows and made my way into the tiny bedroom where I crumpled in a corner. I thought who could live in a dump like this it could be no man. I prayed “Please God save me from the wolf. Why… oh! Why did I ever think of coming to this horrid place? I promise I’ll never come back here. Please God save me…

I opened my eyes to find that it was morning. As my eyes adjusted to the light I saw a fan running above me, all kinds of noises were drifting in through the window. I frowned and sat up with a jerk. I looked around not understanding where I was and then gradually I remembered that I was at home. The hut, the wolf, the rain everything was a part of the book I was reading last night when I fell asleep on it.

It has been said that:

“A dog is a man’s best friend; a diamond is a girl’s best friend”

But my best friend is a book. Whenever I am lonely, whenever I’m feeling sad I pick up a book. I get lost in the world of fantasy, in a world full of thrill, drama, horror et al. I lose myself in the artificial world neither remembering nor caring that I belong to another world, a world of reality where things are more unfair than fair, where people are more hostile than friendly. Reading a book is like food to a hungry person, water to a person dying of thirst, drug to a drug addict so on and so forth.

The world of books is a different world altogether, reading is something that stimulates a person’s intellect. It opens the mind to a larger world of imagination. If a person has not read a book then he has no idea of the world, of the different kinds of people in it. It is only through books and reading that a person can explore the whole world in a thorough manner. All kinds of societies and communities can be explored, the exciting life of the detective or a soldier can be experienced, the fast life of the mafia can be felt, history, geography, everything can be known through the world of books. In one life a person can live a thousand lives just by reading books.

I had never read a book till when I was in class four. When I fell ill and my brother introduced me to the wonderful world of reading. My first book was a Secret Seven by Enid Blyton. I got hooked onto reading books as fast as a drug addict gets addicted to drugs. Books became my drug. I simply could not stop reading. I read books right through. I didn’t even stop during my board exams. I could not stop. I was hooked, addicted. Reading showed me a whole new world. A place where anything can happen. A world where I could lose myself in order to find solace and refuge from the tensions of the real world.

As I read and read I discovered something brilliant, something that I was always yearning to find but never could. I found a treasure trove of knowledge. I travelled places. I visited America, Italy, Bombay, China and a whole lot of other places. I saw Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel, I was there when he carved the statue of David. I met the great Leonardo de’Medici. I helped Mahatma Gandhi in his quest for freedom. I saw Nehru stand in the parliament give his world famous speech “A Tryst with Destiny”. I made many new friends. Friends from the past, present, future as well as from different worlds. I discovered a fact of life which only a reader knows:

“Books and the world of books support us in our solitude and keep us from being a burden on ourselves.”