For me, as it will be for many, memories of childhood are linked to a lot of factors, such as books, songs and films. Books which we loved as kids tend to stay in our hearts as we get connected to them emotionally.
My earliest recollection of a book as a gift was from my aunt on my sixth birthday, The Mystery of the Invisible Thief . And that’s when I entered the magical world of Enid Blyton. I still remember the book, hard-bound with a red cover. Over the years Blyton has been criticised for a lot of things, especially for being racist and sexist and creating two-dimensional characters. But for many of us, the name brings up the nostalgia of rainy afternoons cosily snuggled up with our noses in her books and being transported to a world where good means good and bad means bad, with nothing in between. I remember reading in a preface that many girls had written asking Blyton how they could enrol at Malory Towers or St. Clare’s!
We were seeing off my uncle and aunt going back to Malaysia. He took me to the airport bookshop and asked me to pick up five books. I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. Five at one go! Shortly afterwards, I remember my parents getting me a whole set of books — The Bookshelf for Boys and Girls. It was so exciting when the huge parcel arrived, consisting of ten large volumes of sheer bliss. Each volume dealt with different subjects including fairy tales, stories and songs from other lands and so on.
Other favourites at that time which I vividly remember are Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit and of course AA Milne’s ever lovable Winnie the Pooh. Also very much in demand were the Chalet School series, Billy and Bessie Bunter, and the endearing William series by Richmal Crompton. Years later, seeing William on TV (just the way I had imagined him), brought back memories of the hours spent chuckling over those books.
By the time I was ten I entered the world of classics. The Bookshelf series contained one volume devoted to excerpts from the classics, which was like an appetiser to read the whole book. Our generation was lucky: we had no way but to read because there was no TV or other devices with which children nowadays spend hours together.
Of the classics my favourites were the novels by The Bronte sisters, Dickens, Thackeray, Austen and so on. The list is endless. Louisa Alcott’s Little Women and the sequels found a special place in the hearts of us girls. I first got hold of a torn and tattered copy (without the beginning and the end) of Pride and Prejudice when I went to stay at my grandparents’ home for the holidays. The best thing about the classics is that you can read and reread – the flavour improves each time.
Then I slowly migrated to Agatha Christie. It never ceases to amaze me how a lady from a background such as hers was able to spin out such intricate plots, which even today never fail to confound. Murder with class! And then a friend in school introduced me to the Wodehousian world of Jeeves and Wooster and of course, pigs and Blandings. I have spent so many afternoons doubled up with laughter when everyone else in the house would be having a siesta.
The real difficulty was in getting newer books as we had no Crossword or Amazon! But we circumvented that difficulty by sharing our books at school until they became quite dog-eared! Those were also the days of small lending libraries. I remember one particular man who used to come to our homes on a cycle with a few books and a catalogue. A few years later saw the appearance of the actual lending libraries. They were very sparse; you were lucky if there was one in your town. At that time there was a library near our house owned by a retired army person. I used to really envy him his job because he would always be reading one book or the other. The height of luxury!
The beauty of those days was that choice was limited and we had to really strive hard to get books as was the case for everything. And of course the occasional gifts were a bonus. All this made the actual fact of receiving them so much sweeter. Unlike today when kids have everything at the fingertips and get things with no effort.
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