Imaginative reading
There is this group of book lovers who meet every Saturday morning for an intensive reading session. Every week there is a theme and the participants read books relevant to it. Readers often carry their own read, but one could even pick up something from the pile at the spot. The reading usually goes on an hour and a half after which the readers have a circle time.
Much as I love to, I don’t often get to attend this book reading. This time, however, because the theme was ‘Imagination’, the food that we writers thrive upon, I decided to go.
I didn’t carry a book to read, so I went up to the stack of books on display. My eyes fell on three books and, surprisingly, all three were for kids aged six and above. I didn’t hesitate to borrow them.
During the circle time, while JKRowling’s ‘Very Good Lives’ and children’s classics like ‘Alice in Wonderland’ came up, the rest of the titles discussed were for kids aged six and above.
Think of it, all that fiction lined up in bookshelves are an offspring of imagination in some manner or the other. Yet, inadvertently, all of us gathered there that day had chosen to read books meant for kids.
Though we didn’t talk about it, I wonder if everyone secretly felt the way I often did - to be done with adulting and be a six year old again. To be free from the sensory and take solace in the illusory. To not be inhibited but be unabashedly proud of who I am. To run unperturbed, squealing in delight with my arms wide open.
Maybe, just maybe, delving into pages meant for tender minds was our way of reaching out to the child in us.
Vidya Shankar
Published in The Gulf Today / Short Take, dt Oct 27, 2018)
http://gulftoday.ae/portal/e56bb2ec-7ed3-427b-86f9-a8c50fbb7450.aspx
Here's my first book! An ensemble of poetry and photographs.
Click the link below to watch a 30-second promo video.
https://youtu.be/5BhbjMaIwpk
You can buy it at this link:
https://notionpress.com/read/the-flautist-of-brindaranyamwww.facebook.com
Much as I love to, I don’t often get to attend this book reading. This time, however, because the theme was ‘Imagination’, the food that we writers thrive upon, I decided to go.
I didn’t carry a book to read, so I went up to the stack of books on display. My eyes fell on three books and, surprisingly, all three were for kids aged six and above. I didn’t hesitate to borrow them.
During the circle time, while JKRowling’s ‘Very Good Lives’ and children’s classics like ‘Alice in Wonderland’ came up, the rest of the titles discussed were for kids aged six and above.
Think of it, all that fiction lined up in bookshelves are an offspring of imagination in some manner or the other. Yet, inadvertently, all of us gathered there that day had chosen to read books meant for kids.
Though we didn’t talk about it, I wonder if everyone secretly felt the way I often did - to be done with adulting and be a six year old again. To be free from the sensory and take solace in the illusory. To not be inhibited but be unabashedly proud of who I am. To run unperturbed, squealing in delight with my arms wide open.
Maybe, just maybe, delving into pages meant for tender minds was our way of reaching out to the child in us.
Vidya Shankar
Published in The Gulf Today / Short Take, dt Oct 27, 2018)
http://gulftoday.ae/portal/e56bb2ec-7ed3-427b-86f9-a8c50fbb7450.aspx
Here's my first book! An ensemble of poetry and photographs.
Click the link below to watch a 30-second promo video.
https://youtu.be/5BhbjMaIwpk
You can buy it at this link:
https://notionpress.com/read/the-flautist-of-brindaranyamwww.facebook.com
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