Books

For an award winning recluse like me, books have always been my best friends. During the times when candid conversations were out of question, these non-living objects have lent me ears. When I am not breaking my head over an experiment, you can find my nose buried inside a book,  basking in the glory of its companionship.
A book is a tiny non-living object that always has a room for me, in its hearth. Its pages, have taken me far and wide to places I may never see. Books have told me the stories of people whom I have admired since childhood, and have wanted to emulate. They give me a peek into their lives, their triumphant moments and those of despair that bogged them down. I have always been a fan of biographies, autobiographies and crime thrillers. Stories of people who have changed the course of the world give you eyes,for a vision, for your own future. Gloria Steinham and Nivedita Menon made me mull over the inequality we face in the world, as women.

 
I have always chosen a good book over a movie. For the comforts of reading the book in my own room and finishing it at leisure, is any day better than a catching up on a movie I might want to see out of sheer boredom. 
The addiction to reading always makes me buy more books than I can read. And that sometimes, leads to a guilt trip, which is more or less a vicious cycle. Many times while shopping, I end up not buying a dress I had eyed, spending that extra money on books. 
My book case is stacked with many unread books, some of which have been given to friends and donated to book reading circles in Delhi. It is amusing, how this thing with no eyes, ears, hands or legs can make you dance to its tunes. And that may strangely be because of the friends I have found in them. 
Reading that was once pleasure,is now more of an addiction, that I refuse to give up. For there are no harms but only gains that keep adding up. Although if someone were to ask me to read a scientific journal or a reference book, I can only frown upon that idea and shrug it off, unless that delimiting deadline threatens me with dire consequences.

My book case has more than 550 books most of which are biographies,autobiographies, crime thrillers or non-fiction on feminism. A few authored by Indians are mostly fiction. A few of my favourite authors are Gloria Steinham, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Atwood, Jessica Valenti, Maya Angelou, Jeet Thayil (poetry), Arundhati Roy, S Hussain Zaidi (writes well about he Mumbai mafia), Mridula Koshy, Lang Leav (poetry), Ruskin Bond. Last but not the least, is Sylvia Plath whose poetry has shaped my style of writing. 

Books are one of the best inventions a man could think of. Even if the technology in the world dies down one day due to solar flares or natural calamities, I hope we always get an access to books, without fail and wherever we are.