I remember when i was a small kid...all of 8 or 9, dad thought he should try and develop reading habit in me. So, he would ask me to read the newspaper daily. Just imagine the plight of a small kid, who has just about learnt how to read, trying to read a newspaper everyday! I couldn't make head or tail out of anything, and i started avoiding it like plague!
Thankfully, he soon realised that i was too young to comprehend whats there in the newspapers everyday. But to make the matter worse, he asked me to read the comic strips that are published in the newspapers. As far as my memory goes, one was "Mandrake the magician' and the other was"Phantom". To say the truth, i still dont know how to read comic strips...horizontally or vertically.So, it was back to square one, dad just could not make me read anything. So much so, that i would run away at the very sight of newspapers. I would wake up only when the newpaper had served its purpose and was stacked away in a loft.
But that was not the end of the story.
Summer vacations arrived, and i was loaded with holiday homework. And to my dismay, one of the holiday homeworks was to read three novels and summarise them in my own words. So, began the task of buying books(not to mention-abridged versions). And we finally got three of them: "Around the world in 80 days", "Treasure Island" and "The great Expectations".
Everyday dad and i would sit and read page by page of each book. I have to admit that dad is a great storyteller, he would explain it so nicely to me...that i just fell in love with those books and their characters and the locations. It was so wonderful. They would take me to an entirely differend world...a world of imagination.After that there was no looking back...i would not need any holiday homework to read novels....
So finally my dad's wish had come true.And even now i have those 3 small abridged versions with me as my most prized possessions.
Later..after many years , when i met my standard 3 class teacher at a school re-union, she told me that it was my dad's idea in the first place to have that kind of a holiday homework for the summer vacations...
2 comments:
its one of the best write up, i have ever read. it was simple and beautiful and it tied me till the end.
i usually give up after reading 2-3 lines of any article but this one was different.
hhmm... i found the topic off-beat, but ultimately... has a neat finish.. simplicity... in one word. keep it up. dee. i wanna see more.
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