Going Back To The Old Favourites.

Remember the times in your childhood, adolescence or even early adult life when you used to passionately read story books and novels. They may have been the Harry Potter series (in my case), the adventure and fantasy tales,like The Hardy Boys, the comic books or the classics. Those were the times when you would hide them amongst your course books and read them when your parents aren’t watching. Those were the times when we showed hunger to get hold of any of the books that we wanted to read. These were the books that made the first form of literature we experienced.

Sure sometimes you look back in reminiscence and cherish those times. As we grow up and pass those phases we forget those books. If not permanently, but we do. Even if we ever come across those old titles. Reading them again doesn’t come to us. We seem to be reading ‘better’ books now or have given up reading entirely.

A couple of reasons may be behind why we overlook them now. We think we are too old to read them now or that we have seen and experienced a lot more since we read them first. Thus,the real life seems much more complex than the fiction. Then may be we are simply ashamed to be seen holding the books now. The books may not look that significant in our lives now. One of my thoughts was that since we have come so far and have read a lot more, it would be impossible to go back and read the books with the same innocence that we did earlier. Then there are those who deal in literature, but forget the first meeting with literature that made them pursue it further.

 

Here, I encourage you to pick up your old favourites and give it a try. It’s worth it. You would find that they are still un-put-down-able and still significant. It’s true you won’t be able to read it in the same way you did earlier. However the very fact that it holds significance even when you read it in a different light makes it all the more fun. We strive each day to be better and grow. What we do not understand is that growing older is not the same as going better. We forget some of our aspirations, talents, skills of the young age as we succumb to the outer world on our way to achieve our goals. Going back and reading these books may help us to be in peace with our past and in tune with our present and future. We underestimate what fantasy and imagination can do to us. You never know after going back to your childhood you may appear with a fresh, better and confident YOU. 

Deepika Mehra

Looking for the meaning of my life, I have reached writing.

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