Books that influenced my life.

I am tired of thinking and writing on many issues which I have no control over.

There is a prayer, I am not sure who really wrote it or said it and there is a controversy in this regard too..

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

This is a prayer which is applicable in all areas of our life. Maybe it is one way of resigning from the reality of the situation. There are umpteen areas in our day-to-day life that we have no control over. Most of us have reconciled to this fact, it is one way of living at this time of uncertainties. But the greatest gift to man is no one can control anyone’s thoughts or change it in entirety. The change has to come over from inside, influenced by many sources and for me the books I have read has a deep impact on my life and thoughts. The following posts would be of books.

The earliest of books or rather the stories read out by my grandma were the greatest influence in my life and they are the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. God bless and rest in peace. We did not have any electricity in our place in Kerala, we literally burned the midnight oil by reading with the little kerosene lantern. I used to long for our winter holidays to go there to listen to those wonderful stories. My grandma was a fantastic storyteller, those epics were in Sanskrit and she would translate it to chaste Malayalam. She was the person who took me into the world of books and my curiosity and thirst for knowledge grew with the times.

The next biggest influence were the NCERT English textbooks we had in Kendriya Vidyalaya. I personally felt the entire time I spend in the school was an unending period of boredom. The only thing of worth I learned was the language English and the rest all is just a blur in the horizon. Those textbooks were full of beautiful stories on moral values, integrity, character and many many things. From the absent minded Kutchu to the poems by Nissim Ezekiel, I enjoyed them all. The Amar Chitra Katha, Tintin, Asterix and Obelix, Batman, Mad Comics, Chandamama, Spiderman, Walt Disney, and all the children’s books had a deep impact on me. They were all full of fun and every book or comic had a beautiful message to tell. I remember our librarian Mr Gandhi encouraging everyone to take up reading.

Then came the bit more serious stuff at that time and bulkier Famous Five, Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. I read most of them whenever I could lay my hands on them. This was the stepping stone for most of the other serious reading later on. Slowly Alistair Maclean, Ken Follet, James Hardly Chase (I used to be excited and fearful of the covers), Louis L’Amour, the Sudden series of Western stories and ran through the entire lot by the end of school and the source of these books was a library run by a women’s welfare club. Then a girl introduced the wonderful writer P.G. Wodehouse. I used to read his books at the time of my 10th std and was caught reading this in the English period and a funny incident ensued. Those were the best days of my life. I was transported to a different world all together, I could conceive the scenario in my mind and conjure up the happenings. And my reading into the night was a cause of frequent frictions with my brothers.

I would give anything to get back to that period of wishful reading, if time travel backwards is possible. The next post will be much more details of the books which really changed my perception and thoughts.