The Key to Happiness…

I came to know of the 30 day book challenge from my friend Bindu, who posted it in a group on Facebook. To talk of books is brilliant. My friends tease me that I might run out of space for the books I buy to read. That doesn’t really stop me from buying those books that appeal to me a lot.

Day 5 – A Book That Makes Me Happy

Being a bookworm, reading makes me happy. So reading any book has a sense of contentment that comes along with it. But the books that cheer me up when I’m down in the dumps have been those that I’ve been reading since childhood.

C.S. Lewis told, “A children’s story that can be only enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.”

I find that to be true for the books like Tinkle, or Amar Chitra Katha, and yes, not to forget Tintin and Archie and the Gang. I’m not a comic connoisseur at all, but these are some I turn to even now, and enjoy reading. I laugh out loud at Suppandi’s antics, I wonder if I can make a burger better than Pop Tate and I imagine myself on the moon with Tintin, Haddock and Calculus. To pick one book from these that make me happy is beyond me. So I’ll not try to do that. It is difficult to pick a favorite memory, isn’t it?

If it were to be a novel, and not a comic, the key to happiness again lies in those children’s books. Enid Blyton springs to mind, and the countless hours I spent reading the adventures of The Secret Seven, The Famous Five, and The Five Find-outers. I read about the mischief of the Naughtiest Girl and the fun the o’Sullivans had at St. Clare’s; and of course, The Adventure series itself. I never bought the books, don’t have one in my shelf, but they’re the books I have borrowed from my neighborhood library countless times and have no doubt that I will continue to do so.

Books and happiness… they go hand in hand, eh?

(12th November 2014)

Vinay Leo R.

Poetry & writing to me are to me, a breath of fresh air in a life that is sometimes covered by the smoke of sorrow or self doubt. They also become the sweets I share to celebrate when life offers me a reason to. But most of all, they are to me, my life. For each word I write is a piece of my heart, a thought that just had to find its way into the world.