As a South Indian girl who looked forward to going to the North, passing my twelfth-standard exams offered an opportunity to fulfill this long-term goal of mine. I clearly remember the day when I reached the university where I was to graduate in the coming years. It was a scorching day in July 2018.
My foray into the world of reading actually began from my university days. I was not proficient in the local language (Hindi). Add to it the nervousness brought about by the fact of being in a new environment, and it’s safe to say that I wasn’t at my confident best. My parents stayed with me for a couple of days before heading back down South, leaving me to fend for myself.
It only took an hour for a feeling of solitude to start haunting me. I consoled myself that it was only a matter of time as the commencement of my classes would open up new opportunities of making a lot of new friends. I was in for a surprise, though. I was shunned and isolated because of our linguistic and cultural differences. The only people I effectively talked to were my parents – and even that was nothing more than an occasional phone call.
The more I tried to swallow my pride and be as objective about people as I possibly could, the more I felt that I was being given the cold shoulder on purpose. As one would expect, it took me a good while to arrive at this conclusion, but once I realized it, I decided that I was done running after people to seek their friendship. And that’s when I turned to books. They not only helped me in my academic life, but also offered me their valuable companionship. I started reading a wide range of books during my leisure hours at the hostel.
One day, I had this crazy idea of learning Hindi. I started reading some books and kept practicing the precious little I had learned the day before. It didn’t take me long to become fluent in the local language. Interestingly, the better I got at Hindi, the more friends I seemed to have.
However, my friendship with humans did not, in any way, affect my relationship with books. If anything, I started reading more voraciously. For me, books will always be the companions I can bank on in my times of misery and joy.
A NOTE TO OUR READERS
If you too are an Indian reader with a story to tell, we are all ears. Getting your story published on Ameya is pretty straightforward, actually. Just click on the button below, fill in the applicable fields and start typing. Once you are done, hit ‘submit’. If you don’t quite fancy the idea of filling random contact forms on the Internet, relax – we’ve got all bases covered! You can simply email your story to us at support@booksameya.in. Once we’ve received your story, our team will get in touch with you and apprise you of its publishing status. Yes, it’s that simple!