Blogthought No. 6: How it all began…

Every time my mama walks into my room now to look at my shelves groaning and moaning under the weight, and into my cupboards and every other available surface,

She lifts one eyebrow in blame at my father who smiles it away

And I….

I dream of the next pay check to blow away at an old shop, blissfully imagining the world that lies in wait for me!

The love affair of a lifetime to last a lifetime

And this is how it all began…

Holding onto my baba’s hand

I walked into a musty little corner store

And stared… at the stacks taller than my baba who was the tallest person I knew

And wider than the old man who sat at a desk on one end grinning widely with glasses perched on his nose and the bright yellow bulb reflecting off his head

Piles upon piles upon hordes of them!

My eyes going round as I gawked

I had never seen so many…

Bright and colourful as the bits of paper I had strewn in the living room the day before while making flowers

There were smells there… smells of mysteries and tales… innocence… magic and worlds far beyond what I had known…

I should have felt fear as my baba pointed me to one of them

And let my hand go

But my eyes could see too much possibility in what lay before me and I reached…

And took a step and then another till I could stretch out a hand….

Till one finger brushed it hesitantly, wonderingly… drawing back to look at my baba and the funny little man

And then looking back, reaching out and finally holding it in my hands….

A little later… I was the proudest little soldier in the world!

Walking out of the shop, in front of my baba this time…

Hugging it to me, a trophy on display against the bright red of my jacket…

The white hardcover, covered in pale blues and pinks proclaiming my first step into whimsy…

I still remember the smell and the feel of that first book so many years ago!

It is a sensation that comes back to me everytime I hold one now

And reminds me of just how much magic a book really holds for me!