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Thursday, November 10, 2011

My Bibliophile self

As a kid I always saw my grandmother with a book in her hand. I still have childhood flashes of her reading right after she’d finished her daily chores or when she’d been waiting on the milk to come to a boil or during a TV soap commercial or in her leisure hours. And the bond astounded me, ridiculed me to an extent that it made me covetous .Thoughts about how an inanimate object, so unpretentious, and purely textual with absolutely no imagery is such an inseparable part of her life, drove me crazy. When asked she’d say “Let me tell you a secret? There will be times in your life when your friends will not want to play with you, not want to spend time with you, but a book will never say no! It is your true friend forever!”

Then, inadvertently, could be legacy or a numinous force or one of those enforced summer vacation obsessions, but I fell in love! It got me too, just like my grandma, it enthralled me. Then there was no turning back. I loved everything about books! I loved their texture, I loved to hold a book in my hand, it was real, and it was my companion. Every time I got my hands on a book I would open it, run my fingers over the pages slowly feeling that smooth yet faint imaginary embossment of writings and then smell it... the new ones smelt of glue and factories and cleanliness and I loved rubbing them against my cheeks as they felt baby like and oh so vulnerable. And the old ones smelt of grass, of sawdust, of forests and woods. And they had so much more to tell than just the original imprint, they had ages, they echoed stories of people through those ages. And the overall experience was time-travel like.

Even as I grew, nothing changed. At times my bibliophile-self had sporadic fits of bibliomania, which was thankfully controlled by coursework, extracurricular activities and mom enforced budget radar and then there was a phase of abibliophobia, where I read only a certain number of pages a week to conserve the treasure just like I ate a small piece of Cadbury’s Dairymilk chocolate over 5 days. But it was all worth it, a fantastic experience.

But now, what breaks my heart is the daunting possibility of my grandchildren or the generations to come not being able to experience this divine association with real books. With e-books being readily available, portable and convenient to store, it is probably going to be the only way books will be published a few years down the line. And being a self-proclaimed nature lover and eco-system protector I agree it is in best interest of the mankind to save trees. But if the 8 year old selfish me were to dictate the ways of the world, I would issue a ban on using tissues or paper napkins or paper stationary or mail or any other paper item right now and plant one extra tree for each book only to be able to continue my relationship with this pure, eternal, benevolent and loyal soul-mate of mine till the age of 70. 

10 comments:

Snig said...

Seems like you have read a lot of books, but have you read any faces? (imagine me saying this with eyebrows and an expression like Shilpa Shetty's :-P)

Hehe.. but great post shru! me likes a lots! :-)

espee said...

Haha, sniggu ! I just imagined your eyebrows speaking since you said "imagine me saying this with eyebrows" And looks like I am going to have to read faces in the future ! As books are going to be kept in the museums :)

ScrewLoose said...

Good point made. But there is always a demand for books even without the whole electronic medium being brought in. What the electronic media does in my opinion is open avenues for people who have never stopped to read before, because, like it or not, more people are keeping in touch with the world using computers. It is like newspapers. Even with every media agency having a website with 'breaking news' on it all the time, the old fashioned newspaper hasn't lost steam. And I don't think that will happen just yet, at least not till we turn 70 (not enough time left for such a major revolution).

P.S. I for one am in wholesome support of the ban of paper for cleaning our bottoms. Indian style any day.

Kunal said...

Hey, nice blog; taking readers back many years and then giving a glimpse of a possible grim future for paperbacks! Sure, you got that vocabulary from your reads...

espee said...

haha, I was just trying to be subtle in my blog when I mentioned banning "tissues" and there.. you had to say it! things between us are going to be awkward hereafter but nevertheless I at least know we share the same sentiment ! and I also like your assurance with the newspaper example ..there's hope I can be 8 at heart, even when I turned 80 :D

espee said...

:) thanks Kunal :)

Charu said...

Well done, Shru! I agree with your sentiment of why we should not do away with the print medium. It would break my heart if I had to read an Amar Chitra Katha online. :(

But, the very fact that your piece of work here is being shared online, and not through a fortnightly journal of some sort, is a strong indicator of e-trends that are being "Kindle-d" as I write this comment. :)

espee said...

Charu : who am I kidding ! I gifted a kindle to a friend myself .. we will have to adapt .. it's just like we video chat and type and email and keep in touch with each other, but a hug is a hug :) nothing can replace it !

espee said...

and charlie ! you got me there ! what would i do without the "e-blog", it would take years for me to publish all this .. and who would buy this ? "sniff sniff" "sach kadva hain :( " sadly !

suhas said...

Nice piece Espee,

This reminded me back to twenty five years when I could also see the black and white picture of your grandma reading books whenever she would find time.
I would have tempted to flick this one to write an essay on "Books are your best friends" a schooltime hot favourite topic.
I must admit,My literary skils do not permit me to write anything similar and in the same fluency as yours and I have already found some one to blame for that.....The idiot box and PC games ,(just to avoid discussing about the lack of grey matter at the top)
I cant guarantee that this will not be copied by XXX to impress her Profs in the xxx course about her writing skills.
It was nice reading Shru,
Keep blogging
Njoyed

Suhas