Experience of Reading My First Book
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body”
- Joseph Addison
Reading is a habit every individual must inculcate. I got introduced to reading at a very young age as both my parents were voracious readers. As far as I can jog my memory, I can recall seeing books from different genres on my parents’ bookshelf. From mystery novels to general knowledge books to self-help books — they had it all. Having been exposed to this environment at home quite early in my childhood, I took to reading effortlessly.
The very first book I remember reading as a child was an alphabet book that I got when I started school. Back in those days, simplicity was the key. I vividly remember that this book’s cover was dotted with pictures of an apple, an elephant, a cat, and an aircraft. On the inside, it had six letters on each page with big, colourful pictures of objects corresponding to the letter. The book also had a couple of pages on numbers from 1 to 10, with each page having vibrant pictures of different objects that children could relate to. I remember that book very fondly as it was my first brush with learning. My mother preserved the book carefully and eventually, 27 years later, I got to introduce my daughter to the world of alphabets and numbers with the same book.
My journey with books would be incomplete without the mention of another gem, that was an integral part of my childhood — Children’s comics by the legendary cartoonist Pran. Back in the day, it was a ritual for children to visit grandparents during summer vacations. My maternal grandparents used to live in the city of the Scindias. Every summer, my family would pack and chug off to Gwalior. It was during one of these vacations that I first got introduced to Pran’s comics. There was a book rental shop in a narrow lane near my grandparents’ house, from where my uncle got these comics. The colourful illustrations and simple storyline got me completely hooked to these comics. Be it the adventures of Chacha Chaudhary and Sabu or the shenanigans of Pinki, I used to get so engrossed that I spent hours at a stretch reading them. I was so enamoured with these comics that it became a standard practice to buy these comics at the railway station (to read during the journey) and also rent loads of them during my stay in Gwalior.
When it comes to reading I can proudly say that I had a marvellous childhood. I got the opportunity to read works of authors like Enid Blyton and Ruskin Bond. Simultaneously, I was also exposed to Hindi magazines and books like Champak, Nandan, and Amar Chitra Katha because of which I developed a good sense of the language. Reading is indeed an enriching hobby and it has contributed a great deal to my personality and skill set.
