I don’t remember when I started reading. When I was a kid, there used to be many English Magazines and Urdu readers digests at home. My mother and aunt were avid readers of those. Scrolling its pages and watching all the pictures of women, food and lavish furniture was something I enjoyed a lot.

When I was in primary school, my mother started getting Magic Pot comics for me and my sister. They had a few comics meant for very young kids, some activities like drawing, coloring, spotting differences, and scientific facts that were good enough for growing curious minds. It ensured that I and my sister were both busy after school while she handled all household chores and we both were also slowly forming the habit of reading.

After getting promoted to secondary school, I started acting like a mature kid and wanted something other than Magic Pot. My mother then introduced me to Tinkle Comics. The comics were on the same characters every time and soon I started forming connections with them. I felt related to Butterfinger’s clumsiness and felt annoyed by the mischiefs of Tantri the Mantri. Supppandi was my favorite. I had also started reading my mother’s English magazines. The interviews of the woman on the cover were much more interesting than their photo shoot.

A couple of years later, I discovered another book stall in the neighboring area. This one had much more variety of books. I started opting for more than just Tinkle. The stall was owned by a very old uncle. He had second-hand books and a weak eyesight. He used to touch the book with his hand to analyze its size. If it was a short book he used to give it for Rs 10 and if it was a long book he would charge Rs 20. The price suited my pocket money. Plus if you returned a book after reading he used to give back half the price. This turned out to be a very good deal for me. After reading, I used to return my loot and then adding some more money to the amount that he gave back I used to buy more books.

During school days I used to mostly read at home. With the tight schedule of college, I had to fit this during my train travels. When it came to book choices, picking short horror stories was a phase I went through. Then came novels of teenage adventure, young adult romances, and long book series on vampires and magicians. Now what interests me more is something that has roots in reality. After reading The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, I now look forward to more books from Khaled Hosseini. 1984 reminded me so much of current India.

A few days ago, at Frappe, Ritvik decided to revive the Book Club. We had one during COVID but I wasn’t a part of it then. It was decided that the club would meet every Thursday evening. This time I decided to join. There were only a handful of people on the first day. We were looking for an interesting book that’s suitable for the club. I had read To Kill a Mockingbird a few years back and suggested the same. Even though I had read it before, I liked it enough to reread it. After an hour of selections and rejections, we finally decided to pick this book.

It has only been a few weeks since the club started but now I look forward to Thursdays!