The Books

Have you ever wondered how the books that you read have such a marked impact on your life, and your personality? It was something that I was thinking about the other day, and it seems to have worked in my life, at any rate. Let me try and explain what I'm talking about.

I started reading (apart from the obvious ABC books) with Noddy. Now the thing about Noddy, if you have ever read these books, is that he is almost never ever sad. If anything depresses him, he is immediately counseled by Big-Ears and he is back to his car and his songs and his parp-parp. Noddy taught me that things always work out, and never to lose heart. One of the very first lessons I learnt, that has stayed with me through life.

Then I moved on, to the great Enid Blyton mysteries. The Secret Sevens, the Famous Fives, and that series with R-titles. You know, Rubadub Mystery, Ragamuffin Mystery and so on. These books opened my eyes with curiosity. I began to look for mysteries in every tiny aspect of life, and became the curious geek I am today. I actually graduated pretty fast to Hardy Boys after that, which deepened my mystery mania, which was also fuelled by Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes.

And then it was time for Sidney Sheldon, Grisham, Forsyth and Harold Robbins. Taught me all the adult things about life. Not just sex. Its more about how the world is not such a great place after all. There are things that go on that are well, let's say not ideal. And its not the perfect black and white world of the Hardy Boys either. These books taught me that the line between right and wrong is often blurred, something that is a tough lesson to learn while growing up.

In IIT, I was exposed to Lord of the Rings and the Hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy. One taught me about honour and goodness and adventure - mottos that have guided my professional, academic life - and the other taught me about randomness - a motto that has guided my fun times. I think I have the most fun when I am the most random. I wonder if that's true for everyone.

I then got serious about Ayn Rands and Franz Kafkas. Dark books that taught me about sinister dark corners of life. About how things can go wrong all the time, even if you do everything good and right.

And who can underestimate the Wodehouse books that taught me about humour, and Indian fiction that influenced my styles of writing and reading? And what of the mythological Ramayana and Mahabharata, that influenced the conservative person that people tell me I am? Or Alice in Wonderland, or the Chronicles of Narnia - two books that have made me more imaginative than I ever thought I could be? Or of Oliver Twist, or of The Importance of Being Earnest, or all of Shakespeare - that allowed me to view ages and times that I could not live through?

There are so many books that have shaped me, I can only thank the authors of these marvellous masterpieces. They will always be revered.