I’m a self-professed Harry Potter fan. If you don’t already know, read here and here.
For me, the excitement of reading a Potter book has not lessened with time. I feel good after reading them. I enjoy the prevalent sub-textual humor, the simple style of writing, easy flow of events. Even now whenever I peruse my copy of one of the seven books I feel how I felt the first time - transported to that enchanted world, with all its charms, Quidditch and even Dementors. The book has become the light read in-between heavy ones; the go-to thing in case I have trouble writing and I’m struggling to get a coherent flow. It’s my ‘safe’ book.
But, the time I was first introduced to Potter was when I was going through a rough patch, the first and worst of my life. I was graduating. That stage of life with pre-defined end dates was coming to an end. What lay ahead was extension of one week into many. Friends were drifting apart. The world outside of school was scary. Professional life looked hellishly dull. I was not sure how I would survive in that ‘real’ world. No where I looked I found solace. Couldn’t blame my friends, as they had their own fears and worries to battle! Couldn’t blame the family, for frankly most of them did not care! And the few who did care, tried their best to comfort. Maybe because I was not ready for accepting help, yet, their words did nothing much to assuage the mixture of feelings, pulsing through me, of guilt, fear, boredom, the ‘where am I?’, the prospect of not seeing some people forever etc... I desperately needed a diversion; a hide-out. A place where I could go for few minutes or hours to forget my trouble and be happy; a place where someone else was directing the proceeding instead of me holding the helm; a place where I had no control, but, in a twisted way have more control than it could be possible in my actual life. The Harry Potter books were a God-send, in that sense. It effectively provided the much sought after get-away. As I had said before, Harry seemed more real to me than some of my friends. It gave me lots of things to think about and tried and helped put few things in perspective. What I failed to realize from the words of my well-wishers, I realized when I was reading the words on those pages. Of loyalty, friendship, the power of our choices, the strength to face the unknown, the fact that life goes on etc. The book spoke to me in a new level that I came to subliminally understand its relevance to me. I came to see my world to be interesting too, even without the presence of Thestrals and Wands and Bertie’s every flavor beans. There’s some magic here too.
Just so you know, I’m not saying that Harry Potter or for that matter Rowling is the one only capable of doing that. Any book worth its cost should be able to do that. But I was given Harry and I took it. Really, what I want to bring out was that I lost myself in the magical world of Harry when the world I was in was not very pleasant. The tapping on the third-brick-on-the-left behind the Leaky Cauldron not only opened up the pathway to Diagon Alley but also housed my refuge; the secret place where I escaped to, to escape the harshness of the realities. I’m not shy to confess that a book intended for ‘Young adult’ audience helped me through my difficult days. Frankly, now when I think back on the last few days of college life, I remember only the good times, for Harry guided me through it, figuratively. I think I have effectively repressed the mess that was the last Sem. One thing though: while writing this, I realise that though there will be poeple to support us in times of need, some experiences in life can only be fully understood if we live through it. And, only if we live through it! I believe college to be one such experience.And for the troublesome weaning from it I had the support of good books. Thankfully so! Anyways enough of psenti.
Seven years later, seven being the most magical of numbers, the story repeats.
Few days back, in February, I was mindlessly surfing the TV when I chanced upon Twilight, the movie. I watched it through and unbelievably, ended up liking it. Funny thing is during my stay in the US whenever I was lounging in the books section in Barnes and Noble, I happened to come across the white hands holding the apple, flashing at me from every direction. More than twice I had picked up the book to read the blurb. It said something about Vampires and ‘Welcome to Forks… Friendly Vampires to watch over you!’ Well, I didn’t care enough about the Vampires of all mythical creatures. The image I had of them was that they were filthy and nasty and foul and they drank blood. So I tried to save myself the hardship and never purchased the book. So you would understand my shock when I ended up liking the movie. I immediately wanted to read the book. Co-incidentally, a colleague had also watched the movie and when we were talking about it, she expressed that the book was much better than the movie and that it was the most romantic of all the books she had read. Piqued with interest and being the sucker for good romance, I searched the net and read the book that night. Twilight, the novel was really neat and I liked it. It was very simple and well written. The story kalam was different and so the situations were interestingly unique.
Soon I started downloading all the other books from the ‘saga’. I enjoyed ‘New Moon’ in few places but was bored of the excessive repetitive. Next, I read ‘Eclipse’. Both had parallels to my life in more ways than I can explain, than what I’m allowed to explain. So anyways, I wasn’t all hooked and such but I wanted to read further to know whatever happened to Bella and Edward. So I read the huge, monstrous Breaking Dawn. It was disturbing and frankly quite a drag. It had all the elements from the lived-happily-ever-after platter being gooey and mushy and cliched. Soon after I chanced upon the in-complete Midnight Sun, and I’m really glad that I did. It was good writing and quite a tricky one to achieve too. It was the next best thing to Twilight and I have to agree with a fan ‘The partial Sun did much to save the Twilight saga’s ass than all the last 3 put together’.
Well, Meyer has written a series of books that have become extremely famous, that has a huge fan-base, people crazily tattoo-ing lines from the story, fan-fiction’s as big as the novels themselves and she now writes ‘allied’ books for charity. From these books I have come to see Meyer to be clearly laging in engaging narrative style; adopting a much-abused and un-inventive plot; spinning out less complex and only mildly interesting situations some involving love, loss, grief and stuff that every other book is seemed to be made of. She is no Rowling and I really shouldn’t compare. What Meyer has given is over-night sensation while the other one has gone and given us an epic in true light.
Adhellam sari! Whatever happened to the ‘seven years later something happened’ story?
Yes. I’m getting to it. The point of all the rambling is, much like in the case of HP, I was attracted to a sensation 6 years after the frenzy began. Shame! Never on time, am I? So then, what’s new? I thought I could never obsess and read over anything the way I read Potter series and I never believed that I could feel close to how I felt in my undergrad end-days. But Twilight happened to be a close competitor, both for the reason and for the help. Why O why, what happened? Because again, after seven years, I found myself lonely, stranded, depressed, confused, and angry at being all that. Again, the stupid questions of “Where am I”s and “Am I doing the right thing”s and “Is it really worth it”s. I needed something to soothe the pain of separation. I needed company. A companion whom I can shamelessly get attached to without fearing stupid social constructs. A decent, respectable, yet no boundaries bared relationship. And Twilight, though more of a chance than choice, helped me. It diverted my mind to see things past the current pain. At least one thing I did right this time was to read the books in proper order.
Some people/things bring good luck, some misfortune. But only few bring peace. And books are one such. So as blaphemous as it may sound, I’m saying, what Harry did few years back, Twilight has done now.
After all that’s the essence of a book. Agreed?
P.S. 1: I have done away with the Brackets. Distracted still? :)
P.S. 2: If I have to add other books to The List, I would add ‘Swiss family Robinson’ and ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ and ‘Little Women’.
P.S. 3: Underneath all these babbles, I think the Twilight attraction is pretty much because of Robert Pattinson. Hotness!
Showing posts with label How I met. Show all posts
Showing posts with label How I met. Show all posts
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
How I met.. Part II
Time rolled on (like white smoke-rings coming from mosquito coils). I had settled well in my job. Had read the five books released until then few more times, followed every bit of news surrounding HP, read of the old time rituals and Witch-burnings and stuff, supported Ron and Hermione shippers, hated Cho Chang, watched the movies and found Daniel in the movies (first and fourth alone) to be very cute and marveled at how my image of what Harry would look was exactly the image of Daniel (though his eyes aren’t almond shaped). I became very good in book trivia though still was a bit rusty with the general trivia (Haven’t read the ‘other’ books like Fantastic Beasts etc and was also weak on fan-fiction). The HP interest (knowledge) literally put me on map the first ever time at work (well... they had a quiz... I had won... so... you know, it’s a long story). It created avenues to interact with lots of like minded people (fans, fanatics, maniacs, ... ). Interestingly that led me to becoming friends with two particularly awesome souls (of whom I have selfishly stopped speaking to one, since, well... the going got tough and I had to but let the tough get going... some day... one day I will make it up; the other ended up being my best-friend and is still).
So anyways... came 2005. My level of enthusiasm was too high that I took the initiative (ha...there’s a first...and probably the last) to order the book. But staying true to form I ‘deal’-ed with a bus-mate in sharing the book. The book was delivered on date and her sister, the addict in her family, started reading it. I must have made a million calls to her house to hear the updates and status of progress. (Wonder why, but after the 10000th time they stopped picking my calls.. Must have gotten them caller-id things?) Meanwhile, I was unable to deal with the tension. To keep face, I had to have read the book by the time I reached office premises on Monday morning. And it was already a day since the book was out. In the outside world, reviews were being published in papers (which of course were vehemently avoided); news coverage was extensive with footage of people crying over something (wooops, switch channels already). Since my family were (and still is. You should talk to my cousin. His Voldemort - Kamsan comparison is well ... grrr!) as much anti-wizardry as possible, I had no issues being isolated from the speculation, gossip and inadvertent plot reveals (that rag TOI, it seems, published the death of Dumbledore even before half the town woke up). Unlike in 2004, when I had no choice, when I was introduced to and caught on with the fever, in 2005 I chose not to be part of the fans-groups/ discussions until I had read the book and formed my own opinion on that installment (well... the real reason was to avoid having to chat with mushroom fans... you know, when it rains mushrooms pop only to die out later when the sun shines). Back to the story, that sister took forever to read and gave me the book 1.5 days after release (give it to me already)! I did not even say goodbye to that friend-sister. I just grabbed the book from her very carefully (should appreciate her, she hadn’t even creased a single page.. the book was as good as new), said some cursory things and ran to my room. She surprisingly did not seem to mind (Camaraderie, I say). All I remember of that evening when I got the book and the next day evening until I finished it (I don’t remember… Was Monday a holiday? Or was the book delivered on Friday?), was of me lying on the floor, with pillows under my chin and shin (actually knee, but for the rhyme), Mom providing the required symphonic interlude of scolding (more in the lines of english novel reading educated girls... world going bad...what else) and eyes burning red, visitors giving me up as a lost case. I had been completely unmindful of what I ate, what I spoke (a cousin’s wife later said that I had diligently answered all her questions in funny noises, until she finally gave up). And finally I was done. It had rained outside.I hadn't known.
Lots of discussions (of course with genuine fans; was overwhelmed by the intensity and knowledge of some fans) and lots and lots of analyses (both fun and informative) were followed by the indispensible speculation of what/how the next book would be. Plenty of fun stuff later, I put that magical world in the back of the mind (and the HP HBP t-shirt at the back of my closet) and tried to get on with life taking heart in the fact that there was still one more book left (and also in the fact that I have got 6 books to read once again and who knew what and where a speck of dust was hidden and which could resurface as a landmine. It was an interesting exercise to read books 1 to 5 immediately after completing book 6. Again, at the risk of sounding repetitive, I was amazed with the compelling story telling nature of Rowling.)
Even with all those going on, I got married. That’s to say I added one more member to the family who wanted nothing to do with Potter, the one who was as wisely knowledge-d as to ask if Lumos were a sweet. (He and my brother bonded big time over their common hatred of the "children’s" book. I think I don't really belong to my family. I fit in as fine as Calvin and if I had Hobbes read my shirt collar, no doubt he would have been right; I could have been bought from Sears.).
Change of heart, change of life, change of job, change of place later, it was finally 2007. That time around I really broke the tradition and actually pre-ordered the book (to be delivered to my home) well ahead in month of May. So you would think that I would have read the book suda suda. May be I had offended some Gods in breaking the tradition, but I chose June to get employed out-of-state. And we had to choose the exact same weekend of July 21, 2007 to shift houses to the new town. When? Yes, exactly a day before the book was delivered. What then, you ask? I got in touch with a small time addict, and "humbly requested" him to pick up the book delivered to my house, "offered" to let him to read it if he wished (gasp! will I never get to read the book first hand?) and then courier it to the new house address. Finally, after I got e-books mailed from different people from different places (I still have a very funny version of HP TDH), I got the book only after a week since its release. (Funny thing in an Enna thimir ? kinda way! My Manager’s teen-daughter had wanted to know if his project had anyone with remote interest in Harry Potter, to which he had replied "Yes there is this one ‘girl’. She is from India...Even still...").
So all in all this is how I met Harry for all the seven times.
I’m proud to be part of the Generation that saw Harry Potter live. I can’t imagine how excited I would be when in few years my daughter reads the book and asks me how it was when it was released. Maybe she would be thrilled. Maybe she wouldn’t understand. May be there would be some other book to take its place. Would there be any other book series that would have a protracted life span of 10 years and still have a loyal fan-base another few years later? (Personally this book managed to arrest my attention and manage to hold it for 4 years during its time and still continue to hold).
Time only will tell...
P.S: Is this positive and light enough Mr :)
Yes, I own all books of the series. Soft and hard~
No, I don’t like the movies.
Yes, I like Lord of the Rings - the movie. Books belong to the 'for-later'.
No, I won’t compare.
Yes. I’m glad I wrote this.
And no, I’m not done!
So anyways... came 2005. My level of enthusiasm was too high that I took the initiative (ha...there’s a first...and probably the last) to order the book. But staying true to form I ‘deal’-ed with a bus-mate in sharing the book. The book was delivered on date and her sister, the addict in her family, started reading it. I must have made a million calls to her house to hear the updates and status of progress. (Wonder why, but after the 10000th time they stopped picking my calls.. Must have gotten them caller-id things?) Meanwhile, I was unable to deal with the tension. To keep face, I had to have read the book by the time I reached office premises on Monday morning. And it was already a day since the book was out. In the outside world, reviews were being published in papers (which of course were vehemently avoided); news coverage was extensive with footage of people crying over something (wooops, switch channels already). Since my family were (and still is. You should talk to my cousin. His Voldemort - Kamsan comparison is well ... grrr!) as much anti-wizardry as possible, I had no issues being isolated from the speculation, gossip and inadvertent plot reveals (that rag TOI, it seems, published the death of Dumbledore even before half the town woke up). Unlike in 2004, when I had no choice, when I was introduced to and caught on with the fever, in 2005 I chose not to be part of the fans-groups/ discussions until I had read the book and formed my own opinion on that installment (well... the real reason was to avoid having to chat with mushroom fans... you know, when it rains mushrooms pop only to die out later when the sun shines). Back to the story, that sister took forever to read and gave me the book 1.5 days after release (give it to me already)! I did not even say goodbye to that friend-sister. I just grabbed the book from her very carefully (should appreciate her, she hadn’t even creased a single page.. the book was as good as new), said some cursory things and ran to my room. She surprisingly did not seem to mind (Camaraderie, I say). All I remember of that evening when I got the book and the next day evening until I finished it (I don’t remember… Was Monday a holiday? Or was the book delivered on Friday?), was of me lying on the floor, with pillows under my chin and shin (actually knee, but for the rhyme), Mom providing the required symphonic interlude of scolding (more in the lines of english novel reading educated girls... world going bad...what else) and eyes burning red, visitors giving me up as a lost case. I had been completely unmindful of what I ate, what I spoke (a cousin’s wife later said that I had diligently answered all her questions in funny noises, until she finally gave up). And finally I was done. It had rained outside.I hadn't known.
Lots of discussions (of course with genuine fans; was overwhelmed by the intensity and knowledge of some fans) and lots and lots of analyses (both fun and informative) were followed by the indispensible speculation of what/how the next book would be. Plenty of fun stuff later, I put that magical world in the back of the mind (and the HP HBP t-shirt at the back of my closet) and tried to get on with life taking heart in the fact that there was still one more book left (and also in the fact that I have got 6 books to read once again and who knew what and where a speck of dust was hidden and which could resurface as a landmine. It was an interesting exercise to read books 1 to 5 immediately after completing book 6. Again, at the risk of sounding repetitive, I was amazed with the compelling story telling nature of Rowling.)
Even with all those going on, I got married. That’s to say I added one more member to the family who wanted nothing to do with Potter, the one who was as wisely knowledge-d as to ask if Lumos were a sweet. (He and my brother bonded big time over their common hatred of the "children’s" book. I think I don't really belong to my family. I fit in as fine as Calvin and if I had Hobbes read my shirt collar, no doubt he would have been right; I could have been bought from Sears.).
Change of heart, change of life, change of job, change of place later, it was finally 2007. That time around I really broke the tradition and actually pre-ordered the book (to be delivered to my home) well ahead in month of May. So you would think that I would have read the book suda suda. May be I had offended some Gods in breaking the tradition, but I chose June to get employed out-of-state. And we had to choose the exact same weekend of July 21, 2007 to shift houses to the new town. When? Yes, exactly a day before the book was delivered. What then, you ask? I got in touch with a small time addict, and "humbly requested" him to pick up the book delivered to my house, "offered" to let him to read it if he wished (gasp! will I never get to read the book first hand?) and then courier it to the new house address. Finally, after I got e-books mailed from different people from different places (I still have a very funny version of HP TDH), I got the book only after a week since its release. (Funny thing in an Enna thimir ? kinda way! My Manager’s teen-daughter had wanted to know if his project had anyone with remote interest in Harry Potter, to which he had replied "Yes there is this one ‘girl’. She is from India...Even still...").
So all in all this is how I met Harry for all the seven times.
I’m proud to be part of the Generation that saw Harry Potter live. I can’t imagine how excited I would be when in few years my daughter reads the book and asks me how it was when it was released. Maybe she would be thrilled. Maybe she wouldn’t understand. May be there would be some other book to take its place. Would there be any other book series that would have a protracted life span of 10 years and still have a loyal fan-base another few years later? (Personally this book managed to arrest my attention and manage to hold it for 4 years during its time and still continue to hold).
Time only will tell...
P.S: Is this positive and light enough Mr :)
Yes, I own all books of the series. Soft and hard~
No, I don’t like the movies.
Yes, I like Lord of the Rings - the movie. Books belong to the 'for-later'.
No, I won’t compare.
Yes. I’m glad I wrote this.
And no, I’m not done!
Friday, April 15, 2011
How I met.. Part I
I was exhausted having “made a job”. After all the proverbial exultation over it has been duly done, I had nothing else to do. Well, I had classes but who cared about them anyways.
If you would have cared, please don’t read further. If you wouldn’t have, then, ‘Hi!'.
So.. yea! I remember it perfectly. The batch was broken. Half the friends from the pack were missing. The other few who weren’t in their final term were slogging with their CDCs. It was still January. It was still very cold. It was when I had developed frost-bite. Swollen ankles and feet bogged me down and I pretty much stayed in my room, except for occasional visit to the sidee's in the wing for the quintessential pass-time: movie watching and lacchas. Sloth was my first, middle and last name then. As it was, we were in general ODed on FRIENDS and there weren’t many movies that we hadn’t watched yet, that were released in our winter break. So there I was, that one night. After the last show-of-day of ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’ was done and the talkies were closed, after cribbing about how learning German was of no use to anyone and how as a sign of protest we should all attempt and fail in the next day’s exam, I came back to my room. I had two choices. Either work on the assignment for “Business Writing” or read some mindless novel. Being the stud I was, I promptly picked up the novel.
Interesting thing about how I landed that book. Previous day at dinner, I was asking everyone around if they had some book with them that was worth reading. I had never gone without having a novel handy. Otherwise I might slip and commit the crime of doing academic work. So anyways, one kindred soul said she had a book and she was willing to lend. I enquired again to make sure it was a novel and not some textbook. (One can’t be too sure. And it would not do well to my image if I borrowed a text book (horror of horrors) that too after I had “put” a job (much to my surprise and my family’s disbelief)). So once that vital information was exchanged, we both walked back (well, I limped a lot) to her room (it was at the fork of the H-wing). She gave me the book saying if she continued to have that book with her in the room she would guss all her studies and sit with it. Frankly, the book also looked liked it would like a break from being (ab)used. She said there was some magic, it was highly addictive and advised that I should set my pending affairs straight before I read it and got bitten by it. (Whoa! The book had radio-active spiders in between chapters or what?). After pretending as if I understood what she meant (while really pretending that I cared about what she thought) I read the blurb (the writing on the back of the book) on my walk to my room (a small walk back and a left). It was mildly interesting in that it was different.
And so, that night, I picked up the novel, hunted in the dark (irksome power outage) and flicked on my ‘emergency lamp’ (if this wasn’t an emergency then what was? Exams? ), lay in my bed to read the first chapter of ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ and I almost fell asleep. It was 2004.
I woke up a little while later (thanks to the cold wailing winds). I tried to read the second chapter only to remember that I hadn’t completed the first. So went back to the start. It felt like I was reading a crossword puzzle book. A lot of things that were said made sense (in the second read) and a lot more did not. So I proceeded to the third chapter thinking that if I manage to read and understand anything better I would continue, else would give it up as a bad work and discard it to the obnoxious ‘for later’ pile. But that never happened.
I read the book in a continuous stretch; without any unnecessary breaks like attending college or having breakfast or visiting the loo. I was hooked. I read the book twice back-to-back before I rushed to that dear friend’s (now she is a dear, isn’t she?) and asked her if she had any of the three books mentioned in the list of things written by Rowling. She looked at me with that all-knowing welcome-to-the-club kind of look (which I instantly hated, of course!) before answering me in negative. I walked back very dejected remembering vaguely, from three years back, the image of the book in the hands of my department (the more interesting extra-curricular one) senior and recalled the feverish-ed look that she was wearing ( which I was so able to relate to). And that night, in the middle of it, a brilliant idea struck me (if it had been a movie I would have sat upright with a bright smile, said ‘no’ in a soft/hushed tone, with a brilliant BG score).
Next day, for the first time in my four years, I headed straight to the library which was touted as the (then) ‘biggest in Asia’. And what did I ask? Yes. Of course, “Were there any Harry Potter books available?” The librarian looked at me and pointed me to a PC, sporting a look which specifically said ‘Uh! What a waste’. I logged into the PC and what did I find? There are not four books that were published until then but five? And what else did I find? That all the books have been rented out! The second one was due the next day, so caught that hope like life and registered for the book. How in the world had I not known? Where was I all these years? I mean was I living with my head under the rocks and sands? I would have noticed the movies atleast...you would think! NO! It was (and is) such a shame to be not part of the frenzy.
Came back to the room and read the book once again, slowly. Harry started feeling more like a friend that many of my then friends. I had gotten as much from the 4th book as possible (At that time really I thought I did, you know). I was desperate for more information. More of anything else, I so wanted to find out why Harry was dreaming of flashing green lights and why the hell was Voldemort desperate to kill him. So I emailed everyone whose id I knew. All I had to do was wait! But within a week, the dears (are they now?) rose magnificently to the cause and I received the e-copy of Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix. Since I did not own a PC then, I got my ex-roommate (and now my sidee) to lease me her Comp for few days. I read the book and initially thought that someone has changed and re-wrote the last chapter alone as a crude joke. Unbelievable, I had lost Sirius before even I got to know him properly. Tragic! Meanwhile, I had almost by-hearted the Goblet and have also read the library book of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. (This was one of the amazing books ever written in series kind. How many clues, how many plot twists? You can’t write a book such as the Chambers and then build stories further based on that. No, you can’t! So it amazes me how much deeply Rowling should have charted out the story line,in advance, to provide such vital clues in as early as the second of seven books). Again, by luck, I came across one battered copy of the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (which later turned out to be a stolen/ smuggled library book). Only thing that was pending to be known was the nadhi moolam (or is it rishi moolam?)
In a funny way, the last book I read was the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. So after watching Sirius die, and Cedric and Potters die, Voldemort re-birth etc, I came to know why and how Harry came to live with the Dursleys and how he reacted when he was told he was special. (Again was amazed at the skill of the author. She had almost mentioned Sirius in the passing, before he took significant form in the Third and Fifth books. Had she (like me) written the books in reverse to confidently and liberally provide crucial clues and peeks into the story?)
And thus, I found some meaning for my existence (‘naan indha manil prirandha palanai indre than adaindhen’) when I had finally read all the five books about one extra-ordinary wizard.
And then the wait began for Number: 6.
If you would have cared, please don’t read further. If you wouldn’t have, then, ‘Hi!'.
So.. yea! I remember it perfectly. The batch was broken. Half the friends from the pack were missing. The other few who weren’t in their final term were slogging with their CDCs. It was still January. It was still very cold. It was when I had developed frost-bite. Swollen ankles and feet bogged me down and I pretty much stayed in my room, except for occasional visit to the sidee's in the wing for the quintessential pass-time: movie watching and lacchas. Sloth was my first, middle and last name then. As it was, we were in general ODed on FRIENDS and there weren’t many movies that we hadn’t watched yet, that were released in our winter break. So there I was, that one night. After the last show-of-day of ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’ was done and the talkies were closed, after cribbing about how learning German was of no use to anyone and how as a sign of protest we should all attempt and fail in the next day’s exam, I came back to my room. I had two choices. Either work on the assignment for “Business Writing” or read some mindless novel. Being the stud I was, I promptly picked up the novel.
Interesting thing about how I landed that book. Previous day at dinner, I was asking everyone around if they had some book with them that was worth reading. I had never gone without having a novel handy. Otherwise I might slip and commit the crime of doing academic work. So anyways, one kindred soul said she had a book and she was willing to lend. I enquired again to make sure it was a novel and not some textbook. (One can’t be too sure. And it would not do well to my image if I borrowed a text book (horror of horrors) that too after I had “put” a job (much to my surprise and my family’s disbelief)). So once that vital information was exchanged, we both walked back (well, I limped a lot) to her room (it was at the fork of the H-wing). She gave me the book saying if she continued to have that book with her in the room she would guss all her studies and sit with it. Frankly, the book also looked liked it would like a break from being (ab)used. She said there was some magic, it was highly addictive and advised that I should set my pending affairs straight before I read it and got bitten by it. (Whoa! The book had radio-active spiders in between chapters or what?). After pretending as if I understood what she meant (while really pretending that I cared about what she thought) I read the blurb (the writing on the back of the book) on my walk to my room (a small walk back and a left). It was mildly interesting in that it was different.
And so, that night, I picked up the novel, hunted in the dark (irksome power outage) and flicked on my ‘emergency lamp’ (if this wasn’t an emergency then what was? Exams? ), lay in my bed to read the first chapter of ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ and I almost fell asleep. It was 2004.
I woke up a little while later (thanks to the cold wailing winds). I tried to read the second chapter only to remember that I hadn’t completed the first. So went back to the start. It felt like I was reading a crossword puzzle book. A lot of things that were said made sense (in the second read) and a lot more did not. So I proceeded to the third chapter thinking that if I manage to read and understand anything better I would continue, else would give it up as a bad work and discard it to the obnoxious ‘for later’ pile. But that never happened.
I read the book in a continuous stretch; without any unnecessary breaks like attending college or having breakfast or visiting the loo. I was hooked. I read the book twice back-to-back before I rushed to that dear friend’s (now she is a dear, isn’t she?) and asked her if she had any of the three books mentioned in the list of things written by Rowling. She looked at me with that all-knowing welcome-to-the-club kind of look (which I instantly hated, of course!) before answering me in negative. I walked back very dejected remembering vaguely, from three years back, the image of the book in the hands of my department (the more interesting extra-curricular one) senior and recalled the feverish-ed look that she was wearing ( which I was so able to relate to). And that night, in the middle of it, a brilliant idea struck me (if it had been a movie I would have sat upright with a bright smile, said ‘no’ in a soft/hushed tone, with a brilliant BG score).
Next day, for the first time in my four years, I headed straight to the library which was touted as the (then) ‘biggest in Asia’. And what did I ask? Yes. Of course, “Were there any Harry Potter books available?” The librarian looked at me and pointed me to a PC, sporting a look which specifically said ‘Uh! What a waste’. I logged into the PC and what did I find? There are not four books that were published until then but five? And what else did I find? That all the books have been rented out! The second one was due the next day, so caught that hope like life and registered for the book. How in the world had I not known? Where was I all these years? I mean was I living with my head under the rocks and sands? I would have noticed the movies atleast...you would think! NO! It was (and is) such a shame to be not part of the frenzy.
Came back to the room and read the book once again, slowly. Harry started feeling more like a friend that many of my then friends. I had gotten as much from the 4th book as possible (At that time really I thought I did, you know). I was desperate for more information. More of anything else, I so wanted to find out why Harry was dreaming of flashing green lights and why the hell was Voldemort desperate to kill him. So I emailed everyone whose id I knew. All I had to do was wait! But within a week, the dears (are they now?) rose magnificently to the cause and I received the e-copy of Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix. Since I did not own a PC then, I got my ex-roommate (and now my sidee) to lease me her Comp for few days. I read the book and initially thought that someone has changed and re-wrote the last chapter alone as a crude joke. Unbelievable, I had lost Sirius before even I got to know him properly. Tragic! Meanwhile, I had almost by-hearted the Goblet and have also read the library book of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. (This was one of the amazing books ever written in series kind. How many clues, how many plot twists? You can’t write a book such as the Chambers and then build stories further based on that. No, you can’t! So it amazes me how much deeply Rowling should have charted out the story line,in advance, to provide such vital clues in as early as the second of seven books). Again, by luck, I came across one battered copy of the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (which later turned out to be a stolen/ smuggled library book). Only thing that was pending to be known was the nadhi moolam (or is it rishi moolam?)
In a funny way, the last book I read was the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. So after watching Sirius die, and Cedric and Potters die, Voldemort re-birth etc, I came to know why and how Harry came to live with the Dursleys and how he reacted when he was told he was special. (Again was amazed at the skill of the author. She had almost mentioned Sirius in the passing, before he took significant form in the Third and Fifth books. Had she (like me) written the books in reverse to confidently and liberally provide crucial clues and peeks into the story?)
And thus, I found some meaning for my existence (‘naan indha manil prirandha palanai indre than adaindhen’) when I had finally read all the five books about one extra-ordinary wizard.
And then the wait began for Number: 6.
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