Books and Bookmarks

The year has been strange but the topic I’ve chosen to write on is stranger still. Well, I couldn’t help it. You see, I’ve had a lot of time to go through my treasury of books as I dusted the shelves and rearranged the books. Oh yes! I have this whole cupboard of reading delights. Within the glass doors you’ll find children’s literature, humour, romance, detective stories and the likes with the exception of horror. And now, with great pride I have added the books penned by me and the anthologies I’ve contributed to, to the collection.

The duster was soon forgotten as I went through the bookshelves. It gave me great joy to sit back and flip through the pages of the numerous Enid Blyton creations I have – Mr. Pink Whistle, The Five Find-Outers, The Twins at St. Clare’s, The Six o’ Clock Tales, The Eight O’ Clock Tales...! Then the other shelf has the romantic novels - Mills and Boons, Betty Neels, Penny Jordan and Barbara Cartland. I’m sure you must’ve read – St. Peter’s in Amsterdam by Betty Neels or The Complacent Wife by Barbara Cartland or Christmas with her Billionaire Boss by Penny Jordan. Have you?

And... How can I forget my favourite author, Ruskin Bond? I have a number of his books neatly arranged on the topmost shelf– the Room on the Roof, Vagrants in the Valley, Crazy times with Uncle Ken, Tigers for Dinner: Tall Tales by Jim Corbett’s Khansama, The Blue Umbrella, Ruskin Bond’s Book of Humour, A Handful of Nuts... (sigh) Absolutely delightful!

In the last few years I developed a liking for Sudha Murthy’s books and added those in my cupboard– How I taught my Grandmother to Read and other Stories, Three Thousand Stitches, The Magic Drum and Other Favourite Stories, Daughter from a Wishing Tree and The Magic of the Lost Temple.

And then, there are the Nancy Drew’s detective books, a book or two from the Harry Potter series, Beastly Tales by Vikram Seth, some books from Hindi literature – Madhushala by Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Short Stories by Rabindranath Tagore, Pluto by Gulzar and a few more.

From my author friends I have collected – Bring Out the Tall Tales (Dr. Santosh Bakaya & Avijit Sarkar), Birds of different feathers and Scream and other Urbane Legends (Dr. A.V. Koshy), A Skyful of Balloons, Under the Apple Boughs, Only in Darkness Can You See the Stars: Martin Luther King (Dr. Santosh Bakaya) and ... For God Loves Foolish People (Satbir Chadha).

Well... I seem to have veered away from the main thread. You see this happens when I talk about my treasury of books. So what was I telling you? Yes, I was going to tell you about the different bookmarks I found in these books. There were the odd chocolate wrappers- Melody, Mango Bite and even a golden paper one. Some books had dried up ferns, leaves, carnations and even roses. In one of the books I found a ten year old receipt from a bookstore. It’s so funny how these different, so called bookmarks take you on a trip down memory lane. And surprisingly, very few books actually had bookmarks with quotes. A thank you card given by a student three years ago popped up in one book and brought back such lovely memories. A handmade bookmark created by my sister in her art and craft class looked back at me from yet another book.

As I went from one shelf to another, among the rows of these neatly arranged books I came upon an unexpected jewellery box. I suddenly remembered I had placed it there a couple of years ago. I flicked open the catches and gazed at a shining bookmark. A host of memories came flooding back as I ran my fingers down the spine of this precious leaf!