My story is one of a sudden shift from indifference to passion, and I owe it all to my father. Like every daughter on this planet, I also looked up to my father; he was my one and only hero.
He was the one who made me believe in fairy tales. He was the one who gave wings to my dreams and imagination alike. And it wasn’t as if those were just hollow, meaningless dreams, for he also taught me to believe in and fight for those dreams.
My father was the man who introduced me to music, and to books as well. I was just around ten when he began getting me those children’s books. My first-ever read was a Ruskin Bond novel, and there was no looking back from there. Over time, even as age and time reshaped and restructured my interests, books were one of the few constants in my life.
I stuck to Bond’s works for some time, before I switched to the Harry Potter series. I also read another one of Rowling’s classics, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Comics like Chacha Chaudhary, Panchatantra, Malgudi Days and Avengers were also an essential part of my childhood reading experiences. I even enjoyed reading editorials.
Several years later, I was fortunate enough to find the love of my life in my teenage years. It was quite fitting that the first gift I got from him was a book, Erich Segal’s Love Story. I then went on to read Doctors by the same author. He later also treated me to Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist also changed my perspective on reading, for it inclined me toward spiritual reading. This was why I read Brian Weiss’ Only Love is Real, among his other works. Kahlil’s Gibran’s books, besides Stephen Hawkin’s A Brief History of Time and The Theory of Everything, also had a profound impact on me.
Among Indian authors, Amish’s Shiva trilogy holds a special place in my heart. Spiritual books like Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana and the Bible are also very dear to me. The life lessons I have learned from these books will stay with me throughout my life. There are many more books that I have read and cherished, and I am sure time will only serve to fuel my love for books.
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