To be a 'Bookworm'

It has been some time since I actually heard the term 'bookworm'.
As I ate through the pages of Jeffery Archer's Only Time Will Tell last night, the memories of my boarding school years resurfaced in my mind.I was reminded of the hours that I had spent in the library, the classroom and the dormitory reading.

A portion of my bookshelf! (presently)

                                             
I was introduced to the wonderful world of books in Grade 4. The first library lesson is still clear in my mid (for completely different reasons though). It was Enid Blyton's works that got me started. I was hooked to the Mystery series and later the Famous Five. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes followed. The great detective with his remarkable perception and deduction never failed to excite me.
Harry Potter - the most popular character of my generation was as famous in my school from the very start. I had heard the seniors discuss the books and some of my classmates had even read the first two parts of the series. It so happened that I did not have anything to read one day and was in search for some fodder to feed my brain. This was when somebody lent me Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and that was the day that my magical journey began. Now attending a school that is quite similar to Hogwarts with its more than a 140 year old history, houses , boarding and other stuff can play with your mind a lot and it was more than often that I ended up comparing Harry's world to mine.
As time passed I was attracted to the more literary of writings with the popular classics occupying most of my time in my first year in the senior wing (Dixon Wing). I read Shakespeare and was not impressed or influenced enough to consider him to stand at the very top of the literary pyramid.Charles Dickens was in my opinion for some years the best. I loved The Christmas Carol, but I hated and still do hate Great Expectations by him.
In Grade 7 we had a lesson in our textbook titled 'Uncle Podger Hangs a Picture'  by Jerome K. Jerome. It is a hilarious story of a man's trying efforts to hang a picture on the wall and how the entire family in due course comes to be involved in this endeavor. During the book fair that year I purchased the text from which the story had been taken and to this day  Three Men in a Boat remains my favorite book. I have read it countless times and know the plot by heart and yet every time I read it, the words never fail to make me laugh.
With time 27/RH became more visible on the borrow receipt pasted on the back of the book in the library at school. By the time I reached Grade 8 most of the books sitting on the shelves of the books meant for juniors were familiar to me. While a person could borrow a book for fourteen days from the library, I borrowed 14 books in 14 days! The librarian was left clueless as to how I manage to complete a book each day and when he confronted me wanting to know whether I actually read the words or just borrowed for fun I simply said " I read them Sir." but he was never convinced I guess.There were days when I used to reach the library as soon as I had changed after lunch and would sit till the library was shut at 5 in the evening. I completed the Tintin series, Asterix and Obelix and each Phantom comicbook that the library possessed.I had found a passion that was only rivaled by my love for Indian classical music and most of my time was spent shuttling between these two.
During visits, I made a monthly pilgrimage to Narains, a bookstore in town and would often spend close to an hour selecting a book of my choice. I loved to browse through the immense variety of writings that were on display.Be it fiction, classics, non fiction,cookery books , books on photography, animals , I was never bored as I pulled out books at random and scanned their contents often disturbing entire piles of books! I usually bought a book or two each time. I remember buying Anne Frank's A Diary of a Young Girl from the shop. This was one book that pushed me in the direction of biographies and to date I have read life accounts of people like Gandhi, Hitler, Napoleon, Castro and Ben Franklin.
It was compulsory to attend college matches and cheer for the team at our school. Yet, many a times I bunked these matches and spent these hours in the library or any other place where I could be alone with a book.Sadly, these times were rare and the prefects found me out almost every time and I was sent to the stadium steps.
Those five years (from Grade4 up to Grade 8) were my 'bookworm years' as I devoured book after book, completed the series, the sagas, the trilogies etc. I had wandered into this unknown with little of what to expect and now when I recall it I can definitely say that this was what enriched my thought, my writing and my speech. Today, when I pick up a novel every month or so, I can still picture myself seated at the library deeply immersed in the story immune to the worldly happenings as I myself lived in another realm.

Lift yourself above the world, open its folds and enter a realm beyond your imagination. Its significance a mere speck in your vast understanding but beware, as it speaks so shall form your words, as it works, so shall your heart be...for it is what you shall live as under its wing...... this , to the bookworm I say!