Its party time for the worms in Bangalore, the book kind that is, all thanks to the Strand Book Festival – one of the few things that rock our home’s otherwise carefully managed financial boat..:)
Last weekend was no exception, as Sherlock Holmes, Calvin, Asimov, Mughals and assorted other stars came into our living room, a slightly different kind of printed paper went out, and like always, there’s not even an iota of guilt..hehe
Since D preferred to do eyebrows while I browsed through rows and rows of storytellers, it gave me time to send a little note of thanks heavenwards, to the first storyteller i ever knew, and the best – to my grandmother, who used to tell me a story every night before I slept, who used to make sure i got my ‘Poompatta‘ every month, and insisted that my dad bought me ‘Amar Chitra Katha’ regularly. The storyteller whose stories were only for me, whose characters always seemed to be my age, or the kind that i liked, whose stories were imaginative, inspiring, heartwarming and everything else that stories should be, who made sure that i would love stories for the rest of my life.
And since i know i can never be that good a storyteller, the books I buy are perhaps my way of passing on my favourite stories to those who come after me, for I understand that only the very fortunate ones end up getting a great storyteller as a granny.
until next time, live happily ever after…
Oh, I went shopping too. Bought “Shantaram” and 3 audio CDs.
loved the last lines.
my grandmom used to tell the best court-jester sort of stories. everyday she would chew on her betel leaves after lunch and i would wait patiently for her to chew enough and then spit out the juices, to start with the stories 🙂
hey.. even crosword is having a sale. Some real good books are available at huge discounts…
And yeah, my maternal granny used to tell me stories whenever we visisted her home. She is still there but its been long since I heard a story.. lol, and I was such a sucker for stories.. When I tried telling the stories to my cousins than I realised how boring it could have been for my granny.. lol
What a lovely post … here’s a toast to all wonderful grannies who told us such magical tales …
awww! So sweet.
And btw I havent read Amar chitra katha ever! 🙁 Pata nahi kyun…!
I wanna search for my ACK’s now 🙂
Those slightly different printed papers are not exactly paper, those are cloth, right?
hmmm….grannies or grandpas…never get a chance to get close to any of them.
YOu said it man! NOthing like the wonder years – I’d posted about it too a long time back, in Blurty…comics are still the thing with me..in fact am presently re-reading all of asterix and tintin (soft copies)
🙂
I wanted to visit the book fair last week-end. Hopefully, I should make it this time.
hmmm….should check out the festival…..but i almost never buy new books…always second-hand ones….anyway…i started out with the Hardy Boys and the 3 investigators…haven’t look’d back since..
I have to check that out…
hyde: a colleague has been recommending ‘shantaram’ highly.. gimme a feedback when you’re through..
parna: i think most grannies are good storytellers, aren’t they?? 🙂
tony: ah, even storytelling is an art 🙂
anjali: yup *clink* 🙂
stone: uhuh, paper with gandhi’s pic 🙂
phatichar: never got on with those two…
monk: famous five??
pallavi: should definitely …