My First Love!

As I near the third birthday of my baby, my blog (4 August), I feel that this is the perfect time to share with you all what really started this all. What really was the starting point of a journey spanning countless books, that fired me off to start writing. So, yes this blog’s gonna be more of a personal one.

Reading. A single reason, a single hobby that soon became a habit.

I started reading when I was three, learning to join my first words and sentences. It all started with a magazine called Magic Pot published by Malayala Manorama (It’s still being published), a really beautiful, lively and creative kids’ magazine filled with cute little animals, classic stories and countless learning based activities. My parents got me one of those, and I simply loved it! So, my middle class parents, without sparing a second thought, got me a five year long subscription. Because that was their decision. To spend on books, no matter how difficult it may be. It was one amazingly joyous journey for me. My parents turned into storytellers, helping me read, giving their time, so I could learn to love books.

As I grew up, me and my parents struck a deal. For any task that I didn’t feel like doing, but was good for me, I would get a book on completion. A very fair deal! I spent hours reading short story books, magazines like Champak and Children’s World and of course, Diamond Toon Comics like Pinki and Chacha Chowdhary.

Not even a single day passed before I went to bed without reading. What started off as a hobby had inevitably become my favourite habit.

And then, at the age of 11 I stumbled upon my first novel (Famous Five) at a relative’s house. Bored and always hungry for the written world, I just loved it! Now, this was it, I decided. I read my way through all 21 books of the series and then explored many more series’. Since then, it’s been a journey through countless books, my parents are still spending thousands a year (for ebooks strain my eyes a bit), and because of them I’ve been able to travel to fantastical places, meet amazing people and just learn so much! Strange, what wonders parenting can do, isn’t it?

I don’t mean to write much about my writing journey. But the one big step was starting off this blog, writing book reviews for two years, and then switching to my more personal work over the past one year. This month, I’ve started a book club as well. So, it’s been one long journey, I guess. Didn’t think a three year old’s loving a magazine would go such a long way. But, here we are! Fate, as they say!