Books - Our Family's First Love

Indyeah's article about her love for books, inspired me to write a post about my family's love for books.

My whole family loves reading books. I remember my grandmother (during late 1950s to '60s), used to sit in the veranda of our ancestral home, in Udupi (Karnataka), in the afternoons and read the day's newspaper (Kannada), 'Navabharatha'. I remember her wearing a pair of round specs ( like the one Gandhiji used) for reading and was asking us to read if the letters were too small. She used to discuss about politics also with her sons. I still remember her crying when the late American President Kennedy was shot dead. She was so happy to read about Yuri Gagarin reaching the moon. She was reading the weekly magazines of those days, like Kasturi (it was the Kannada version of Readers' Digest, if I remember correctly), Mayura etc. My grand father was a Sanskrit scholar and had a printing press of his own and a book shop also, which sold religious books. He used to give pocket money to my mamas and they spent that money on subscribing for books like 'Life' magazine and they had the full set of Perry Mason books at home. One whole wall was full of books in Sanskrit, Kannada and lots of English books too. English was not so popular in those days. I remember showing my small children, when I went there with them, the photographs of Queen Elizabeth's coronation ceremony, from 'Life' magazine. They were so beautiful. They were hard bound books. Those books are now, at the local College library, which my grandfather had patronized. My mother worked as a librarian, after we came to Madras. She was an encyclopaedia of mythological characters! She and her grandsons (my sons) used to spend hours discussing about them. She was a cricket addict too and used to discuss with my husband about who was a better player!

As far as I remember, I started reading 'Chandamama' in Kannada from 3rd or 4th std. It was a monthly magazine and I used to sit and wait in the veranda seat (the old house had a separate gate, a bit away from the main house, with a roof and seats on both sides of the gate) on the day the magazine was delivered. I remember reading the complete book at a stretch, there itself - my mama and mother used to keep on shouting at me, to get ready for school! I was introduced to English, when I joined 5th Std., here, in Chennai. Then learnt Tamil and started reading Tamil books, like Ananda Vikatan, Kumudam, etc. I started reading English books, like Treasure Island etc. from around 7th Std. Got them from our school library. Later on, read some books of Ruby M.Ayers (M&B type), but was not very fond of them. I don't know why I remember her name. I must have read just one or two books of hers. Maybe, that was the first romantic novel, I had read in my teens! I became an addict of M&B books in my 40s! Hormonal imbalance?!! Then, the whole world opened up, when I started reading James Hadley Chase, Alistair McLean, Perry Mason etc. It continued to Arthur Hailey, Irving Wallace, Pearl S.Buck and so many other authors. My husband also is a serious reader of books. I used to bring two books at a time from the library. We used to fight for which book to read first. He used to finish reading them first and threaten to reveal the end of the story to me!

Now, to the children.



I read a lot of books but a zero at the ability of story telling. So I started buying
'Amar Chitra Katha' books and read the stories to my sons, from the pictures. I used to read them in English first (this was, before they started going to school) and then translate them into Tamil (My husband is a Tamilian and we speak in Tamil at home). When my elder son was in UKG itself, he started reading these books slowly - I had to read just the Sanskrit names of the characters. I had subscribed for Readers' Digest in those days and he started reading jokes first. Then in a later date, all four of us, used to do the 'word power' (3-4 meanings will be given for a word and we have to tick the correct one, first in a paper) and check who had written more correct words. I still remember - my husband and I used to read books before going to sleep and the children used to sleep between us. After reading them, we kept the books under the pillow. The children will have a look at us, lie down on the bed with their legs crossed, just like their father, with a book each in their hands and pretend to read, with the book upside down! After sometime they too will push them under the pillow and take some other book to 'read'!

My elder son started reading Perry Mason from 4th std. The younger son is just 2 years younger to him. Both are fond of science fiction books. We used to get books from the library and the whole house was scattered with books. People who came home, used to say that our house looked like a library. We were regular visitors of book exhibitions. This book-reading habit has taken the children's knowledge to the peak. My elder son took a huge carton of books when he went abroad for studying further, all old books, which he had read umpteen times! Everyone knows my habit of presenting books to all the children, for their birthdays.

Yes, I am fortunate to be born in a family and married into a family, who are all book addicts. And music lovers! It was so easy to entertain my children when they were small with book-reading, because we did not have any elders with us to pay attention to them. I had to do multi-tasking, with 2 small children and housework and only the books saved me from going mad, in those days. Books are god's gift for all of us.

As Indyeah said in her post, 'Nothing can replace books. Nothing should'.



Picture courtesy: Chandamama and Amarchitra katha - google sites