The Blue Realm

I am glad my grandfather had a study room in his house. Why? because
it inspired my father to have one in our house as well, when it was
being built. There was a long table, which reached from one wall to
the opposite wall, there were shelves above beyond the head levels and
there were shelves below the table, leaving adequate space for legs.

The study room was a very important place to me. Why? Because it was
the storehouse for all the books that I had and it still is.

“Before and after reading, all the books must remain in the study
room. The books must be neatly arranged according to their genres or
subjects. Regular dusting must be done to ensure that dust doesn’t
settle on the shelves or the books in them,” my father had instructed
me, “this room is under your care, anything that goes out of place
will be your responsibility.”

I was 10 and I understood my responsibility, however acting upon the
same was a task trickier than what I had thought. There was no end to
the dust settling, and books I snuck into my room to read at night
gave away my late-night activity on occasions when I would fall asleep
reading. Life was great nonetheless, it was the golden period of me
reading books.

Things have greatly changed in the present. If you enter the room
today, you will find a sea of books, there are books everywhere, on
the tables, on the chairs, even on the floor. The shelves proved to be
insufficient in preventing the outpour of books that were to come
later in life and then the arrival of eBooks made taking the effort to
tame the sea a little complex.

Reading books is one of my most cherished hobbies. Had I known earlier
in life that the path in life ahead would be so busy, then I would
have given more time to reading books and gone through more titles
that I have until this point.

When and how I came face to face with the first book of my life is
something I would probably have to ask my mother since my paternal
grandfather has passed on to a world beyond my reach as a living. Both
of them played significant roles in bringing books and reading to my
life and I cannot ever thank them enough for doing it.

It gives my heart great delight to recall the past and realise there
was a time when books were the ideal gift that almost everyone read.
They were no less than a treasure in a household. Nowadays, I have
almost stopped asking people whether they read a book or not. Almost
all of them are apparently too busy to do anything else in life other
than working in an office.

A hoopoe is what I recall of my favourite book from my initial
interaction with books in this world. I cannot recall the name of the
book. It was a book which was clearly made with illustrations as base.
Each picture seemed like it had been water coloured. The hoopoe flies
through the jungle interacting with different animals. Light azure
blue was the dominant colour which had been splashed all through the
book right from its front cover to the back cover and everything else
in between.

The book became a victim of my ignorance of high school years, only to
discover years later that I could not find it anymore among several
other things which I held close but had lost track of. I have given up
the hope of ever finding it again, but what I am not giving up on is
the experience of going through it and the feeling of the beautiful
nature which always inspires a smile just like the one in the moment I
write these words.

Written by Anuran Chatterji

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