Reading has always been a hobby since childhood. I was very shy as a child, didn't really have too many friends. Stepping into the make-believe world of books seemed easier than interacting with the people around me and also far more exciting. This escapist approach continued for a long time till books became my lovers, my friends, my guide! Having done a B.A in English literature I was exposed to writers from across the world and thus my affair with books will last a lifetime.

My childhood was about Indian comics like Tinkle,Amar Chitra Katha and Panchatantra.. The mix of mythology, folk-lore,small - town Indian characters, their beliefs, superstitions, magical realism seemed so alluring and catchy, I would read on for hours. Of coursse, Enid Blyton was an all time favourite and the world was a happy place. I would read at night before bed,after school, between tutions, in the bathroom! Don't ask me how I studied in the middle of all this.

Adolescence brought this surge of hormones and the only outlet again was books! It was all about indulging in racy, thrilly pulp fiction kind of reads like Sidney Sheldon, Danielle Steele, Jeofferey Archer, John Grisham.

By the time I got to college I thought I was considerably well-read and that's when my Lit class happened. Suddenly all the books I had read so far seemed like a drop in the vast ocean of literature as I was introduced to John Steinbeck, Milton, Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf, Slyvia Plath, Anita Desai,Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth (my personal fave), Salman Rushdie, Daphne du Marier, Kingsley Amis, Evelyn Waugh and so on.

In New York, while my classmates used to hand out at coffee houses I would rush to the neighbourhood Barnes and Nobles bookstore and feel like a kid in a candy store. American writers like Peter Schaffer, David Mamet, Sam Shepard, Toni Morrison, Tenesse Williams opened their arms for me !

Currently I have fallen in love with Sudhir Kakkar, a psychoanalyst and writer. His books always manage to weave fact and fiction at the same time making them socially relevant and extremely interesting to read. Some of his works I have been reading since some months are "Ecstasy"-capturing the life of Ramakrishna Paramhans, "The Ascetic of Desire"- a fictitious account of Vatsyayan, the creator of the Kama Sutra and "The Analyst and the Mystic"- a psycho analysis of what conditions lead to the birth of mysticism.

Well I think that's enough name-dropping for now. Would love to know what you guys read (when you aren't watching TV that is!!). Time to go and read the script that I am working on!! Ciao!

Posted in: Thoughts

User Comments

Join India Forums for free to comment on this story.   Have an account already?