musings.....

Ok thats it. There has been nothing else going on in my walking,eating,talking,sleeping,working mind since I started reading HP-6. And now its over. Thats it. I am tempted to discuss the book threadbare, but can't do so without revealing who dies in the end. So I wont.

It all started, one especially sultry Pilani afternoon, in my first year. We were doing this course called "Linguistics" I guess, or was it English Language Skills II ?? So anyway, we were required to do a book review. That was the time HP and the Goblet of Fire simply hogged all the publicity a book ever recieved. And my faithful wingie had an orginal copy of it. Just to see what the fuss was all about, I borrowed the humungous 600 or so page monster from her. Being the Bhawan's night season, there was very little time to devote to what seemed like kids fairy tales. I had Jumpha Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladies" with me, just in case.

But as I turned page after page, I discovered it was pure delight, and there was nothing kiddish about it. It was about a young man, who feels, who thinks, who acts and makes mistakes. Is it an epic? Are the characters metaphoric? Is it like some modern day Mahabharatha, only with the names changed? I dont know, but I am sure it cast a spell on me. It soo fascinates me that people still let themselves feel good about something supernatural and magic.

I was soo lucky, like many of you who are reading this blog , to grow up reading and listening to Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tales, and of course the whole array of Indian folk tales, and Ramayan and Mahabharath. Later on, it was Noddy, and Big ears, and Enid Blyton's Magic Faraway Tree.These things fuelled my imagination, I used to live in a make believe world of goblins, and elves and princesses. Wow! How simple those days were! You pretended you were on this magic caravan that took you to all fantastic places, and you sailed on a magic carpet with the whole world beneath you!! It was far away from the world of ones and zeros, and deadlines, and phone bills and laundry headaches!!!

But I digress. the point here, is that this book is not a make believe world where everything is hunky dory at the flash of a wand. It is not about a Prince Charming who does these incredible deeds and wows a beautiful princess.(Infact there hasnt been any full-time princess so far!!) It is about a boy who fails in a few courses, gets detentions, plays pranks and enjoys stealthy adventures with his friends.It is school life, and fun and revolt too.(I still ROLF at Fred and George and how they wreaked havoc it Hogwarts!!)It is about the pain he endures, it is about how he tries to struggle, and yet remain human. Sometimes I think it is what Matrix-lovers feel about Matrix. Does the book itself have multiple layers of meaning and allegory? Does it convey more than a normal kids bedtime story does? Will it reinforce the one thing told over and over again through many, many tales worldover since the start of time - "The win of good over evil" ?? Will it tell people, instead, that "hope" is an illusion, and that in reality, cruel guys always win??Lets wait and watch.

I am going back to my temporary world - of talking potraits,Patronuses, and Weasley's Wizard Wheezes :)) Until the charm wears off atleast !!