Dinesh and Bawa

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Friday, May 16, 2008

My first "Fat" Book

When i was in the third standard, i had some disease called rheumatic fever... supposedly very bad and stuff... mainly for me it meant i didnt have to goto school for almost an entire year, i was passed to the next standard by Don Bosco for which i think i will be eternally grateful based on my performance in my first unit test...

So for almost a year, i had to stay home, be with my grandma, and a few friends who would pop by once in a while... dad introduced me to books then. Almost every evening when he would return from work, he would buy me a new Enid Blyton and i would read it up in a day... fortunately for me and dad Ms Blyton had been a prolific writer and so well into the next year i read books by her and kept wanting more...

Dad then got me other authors for kids, i liked the hardy boys and nancy drew series and other stuff that was then available but never really loved them the way i had loved enid blyton...

So, one day when we were at a party at my uncle's home who is also an avid reader, he gave me my first "fat" book: Hotel by Arthur Hailey. I had refused to read anything so fat so far, but i couldnt say no in front of all the adults there, so i took it with a grimace
... vowing not to read such a monster of a book!

Then after reading all the books i had a few more times, i was finally left with Hotel. Dad refused to buy me more books util i at least gave Hotel a try... i settled down with it, and i remember being blown away by it!

i quickly read up everything that Arthur Hailey had written so far and along with that gobbled up some Sidney Sheldon and Jeffery Archer as well... Hotel, Airport, Shall we tell the president?, Not a penny more, not a penny less (that was hilarious and it was not even fat!) were i think my absolute favourites...

By the time i was in college i had read many many fat books :) and loved most of them... As a residue of that illness i was not allowed sports till my 10th standard and so while everyone woudl be outside playing, i would be inside reading... and they would be feeling sorry for me, and i would really feel sorry for them! They had no idea in which worlds i was in when i had my nose in a book...

Hotel is still one of my favourite books... if you have not read it, please do :)

More exotic authors coming right up in a few days time...

Keep Breathing!
Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa  

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13 comments:

Uday Sanganeria said...

one book a day..wow! i guess i missed that part in my childhood because i never never liked reading books and i was always compared with my cousins who were into enid blyton. i am so happy that my sisters had not heard about you :) infact i never understood how people could read books till i managed to read my first sidney sheldon.

Anupam Gupta said...

hehe bau...good one...

i remeber my first FAT book was papillon by dominique lapierre i guess...dunt remember the author so well...wasnt a book meant for kids in anyway...and i read it wen i was 12!!!!

i love jeffrey archer...and yes not a penny...was quite intriguing...

bau do read the posts on my blog and comment tooo....others also r welcome and invited to read and click away on d ads...

http://eternalinsight.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

your biographical posts are so very poignant ... takes me a while to recover .. its great to have you back!

Anonymous said...

Hi Khurshed. Your post on the "next level" of books brings me back to the comments section and brings to mind Jeffrey Archer and his (rather fat- since you mentioned a fat book) trilogy of Kane and Abel, The Prodigal Daughter and Shall we tell the President. Also what makes for some great rainy day reading (curl-up-with-hot-chocolate-on-the-sofa kind) is his collection of short stories, viz Quiver Full of Arrows, Twist in the Tale and (I think) Twelve Red Herrings. Lots of Love, As Always, Shehnaz

MJ said...

AHOO!! :)

Reading a book in a day is always fun, when its interesting :)
Knowing about you through your blogs, makes me miss you even more Bau :)
Mine first "FAT" book was though Hitchhiker's guide to galaxy :P

It wont be wrong if i say that you are the lovliest teacher i have ever met in my life till date :) Utsav, and i was like "Ohh GOd" when i met you :)


Jai Gurudev :)

Anonymous said...

enid blyton, famous five, secret seven, tintin, hardy boys, nancy drew ...memories of fun-filled school summer holidays come flooding back :)

Interestingly there is a strong gender bias in the US when it comes to hardy boys Vs nancy drew. I mentioned to a friend's daughter that I read nancy drew and she went "tee hee hee". incidentally it is only read by girls :)

wodehouse captivated me in high school....jeeves, bertie wooster and the other illustrious members of the pgw ilk are still fond memories. sadly all my reading these days is technical in nature...though thats very interesting too .

Jai Guru dev,

Unknown said...

jai gurudev bau
wow i will surely read hotel and airport
bau just last week i read THE EVENING NEWS by ARTHUR HAILEY
its just fabulous !!!!!!!
i think he is too good

MJ said...

hmm... the 'UNIT' ['Unti' till yesterday] test's spelling has been rectified :P
Bau you are simply hilarious!! :) :)

Jai gurudev :)

shilpa said...

Ok Bau, it would be Hotel next....your introduction to books sounds very interesting, mine was Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (that is if we dont count a compilation of Amar Chitra Katha that I had, it was really fat)...

Anonymous said...

that was amasing Bau ...mission Hotel on....My first fat book (apart from a compilation of Amar Chitra Kaths ) was Great Expectations by Chales Dickens....

Unknown said...

Dear Bau, I will certainly get one Arthur Hailey book this weekend, preferably 'Hotel'. I have not given up my reading habit yet & gorge at least one new book every couple of weeks.

Jgd & Love,
P

Unknown said...

Hey Bau,

I got 'Detective' by Arthur Hailey. It is indeed gripping.

Love & Jgd,
P

Devi said...

Didn't know we have common taste in books! I was so taken by the Enid Blyton post (yeah, I left my comments too!)and now this on Arthur Hailey. I did the exact same thing. I read Hotel and Airport and gobbled up every other of his available. My favourites are Hotel, Airport, Strong Medicine, Wheels and The Evening News. My experience after reading each of his well researched books was to take up that profession (as I was still in school planning my career). Feels great to share it with you.
And I have recently taken to blogging and will sure take tips from the url you have given and give you the link to my blog.

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