A BOOK LOVER'S CONFESSION

          My love, so to say, addiction for books is a genetic inheritance that I owe to my grandfather and my father. During our school days there was no words like TV and mobile phones in our lexicon. We children grew up in a large family at Surada without any electronic gizmo. The only sources of infotainment were newspapers, magazines and transistor radios then. My passion for books started with Reader's Digest magazines and Chandamama ( a children's magazine being published from Madras ). My paternal uncle, an Indian Air Force Sergeant used to bring for me surprise gifts in cartons packed with Reader's Digest magazines  during X-Mas. As for Chandamama, I used to get them from the magazine stalls. Such was my craze that  I forgot my surrounding and even  might have skipped my meals while being engrossed in reading them. I had earned the appellation "Book Worm " because of this. Then, my obsession with books began too. 

            I entered  into the world of books during high school days and  went through  the world classic series books like  "The Treasure Island " ( R.L.Stevenson ) , " The Coral Islands" ( R.M.Ballantyne ) and " The King of Golden River" ( John Ruskin ).Then there was no looking back. I browsed through popular and famous non-fictions as the time passed by. I purchased books at every available opportunity to boost my personal collection. While travelling on train I have also bought many pirated books of famous writers at a considerably low and subsidised price from the vendors.I have read " Midnight Children" of Salman Rushdie, "God of Small Things of Arundhati Roy and "Freedom at Midnight" of Larry Collins and Dominique Lappierre and have enjoyed them. Reading is my hobby and the happiness I have derived from it is ineffable.

( Writer - Dr. Pradeep Kumar Nayak )