My First Love Affair – My School Textbooks

‘Let books be your dining table,

And you shall be full of delights

Let them be your mattress

And you shall sleep restful nights’

I think my first love with books began with the school textbooks. Aah! I know it sounds boring, but it wasn’t. Our English, Hindi and Marathi Bal Bharati texts had so many illuminating stories to tell. Some nice poems as well which I remember till this day.

I still recollect how we would devour the books till all the interesting stories were read. And all this happened in a couple of days from the purchase of the books. I would even complete the stories from my sister’s textbooks and she is 4 years older than me. She would read mine to go back in time.

There were some good one’s like the ‘the Duck and the Dachshund’ – an emotional story about friendship between a dog and a duck; ‘A letter from Mussourie’ – a letter from an elder sister to her younger sister describing the picturesque beauty of Mussourie and the clouds which she had experienced and realized it was mist; ‘Visraloo Vinu’ – a forgetful boy who once forgot to sow the seeds and continued to water the flowerbed till his teacher pointed it out to him.

Stories about ‘Sikandar aur Porous’ and ‘Shaikhchilli’ was also enjoyable.

And then there was this extremely hilarious poem amongst the stalwarts like William Wordsworth; W.B Yeats, Robert Frost, John Keats and W. Shakespeare.

It began something like this, ‘Okee Pokee Chinga ma ring; 18th wife of the mighty king’. That’s all I remember of the poem and how I went in splits when my sister was reciting it for her exams.

I wish I had paid more attention to the classic poems then. Sigh!

The only prayer song I know completely apart from ‘Our Father in Heaven’ is ‘Prarthana’ and started like this, ‘Hey bhagwan, mujhe is duniya ki seva ka vardaan do…’ This was the first chapter in the 6th standard Hindi text book; which I tend to recite unknowingly whenever tensed.

As I grew up, I enjoyed reading my History texts which had inspiring anecdotes and narrations about Indian history, freedom movements, sacrifices, famous leaders and martyrs, losses and victory. With each story I became more Indian and a patriot in every sense.

More than anything I loved the action, adventure and most of all rebel. I love rebellions! :)

And of course who can forget the famous slogans which erupted in the streets in captive India (and in our semester exams:) ‘Simon Go Back’; ‘Tum Mujhe Khoon Do main Tumhe Azadi Doonga’; ‘Inquilab Zindabad’; ‘Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna’, ‘Ab hamare dil mein hai’.

The world history was as interesting and adventurous especially the chronicles on American history, Boston tea party, the cause and culmination of World War 1 and 2 being most interesting feature of the entire book.

Geography grew interesting when it spoke about various regions like Tundra, Coniferous forests, and Grasslands like the Savannas, Prairie. The books would describe the culture, habitat and food habits of various tribes and nomads like the Bedouins, Eskimos and Masais.

Oh! It was so beautifully described that I wanted to meet the Masais who drank a particular insect’s blood. It was all so fascinating.

But that was it. Parents and teachers don’t expect fascination; they expect good marks.

That’s where the problems begin; I somehow could never remember much of what I had already read :) 

I simply enjoyed.