Thats how i developed interest in literature.

I have always had an interest for literature, which was for long time unrealized. Being from a literary family, its natural to feel a knot with different forms of literature. There were days when I used to feel intense isolation with all family members submerged in their respective books and me searching for somebody for some discussions, cribbing a lot due to lack of company or attention and ending up either watching television or reading a few interesting stories. My younger sister has a good appetite for reading since her childhood. And with all pressure and her example, I had no choice but to keep reading and reading until I made this a habit. My mind always wandered in the world of my own. As a child we used to enjoy one of the monthly magazines champak and Chanda Mama which as per my father was no more suitable for our age as we grew up and got promoted to Nandan. He never liked us reading Chacha Chowdhary, Pinki, Billu, as they were just for fun and no gain. Anyhow I often managed to borrow such fun reads from my cousin brother, he was generous enough. And after a few years, probably when I was in fourth standard we kids were blessed with two wonderful books, I can never forget. One was “Russian Folk Tales” (translated in hindi), and the other was “Jahaan Chah Wahaan Rah”. Both of them were of 250 or 300 pages with wonderful magic tales, each of them of around 40 pages. After watching the large sizes of the books I was reluctant to read them, they were scary to me. First few of the stories were narrated by our parents and then after watching my kid sister reading it (though she is only one and a half year younger), I was inspired, or may be out of competition, compelled to read it too. And then I enjoyed the tales in it so much, that I have read both the books infinite number of times. Some of them had wonderful poems in between, that were really enjoyable, I still remember them and hum them before younger or elder members of the family. While shifting to a new place, we lost both the books. And that was the first intense loss of my true possession. I still at times search and ask for those golden reads at the book shops, in a hope to get my childhood back. In the meanwhile I developed another talent inside me during 6th standard i.e. writing poetry. One of the initial poems I wrote was for my school magazine “badal mujhe bana de ma”, which my siblings still like, and some more poems followed till 8th standard. After which I got busy with my own soul searching and developing an understanding of life around me, a transition period, which I believe every kid goes through. My interest for writing got dissolved but reading habit remained intact. I enjoyed loads of folk tales from different states of India. I was always hesitant to read novels because of their serious nature( as I believed) and their weight. My first novel was “tell me your dreams” by Sidney Sheldon, which I read by chance. And the next was “The Thorn Birds” which my sister compelled me to read in a funny way. She narrated me the story and like a child I was hearing her every lil’word and when I developed interest in it, she left the book and I was compelled to read it out of the curiosity. That was the first Lengthy novel I read and which I enjoyed, followed by Babar. I felt more attached to the characters and their life depictions. After that there was no turning back. Again after a long time I have developed interest in poetry again. After writing a few, I have started reading books on poetry. Another addition in my library...