What’s your favourite quote and why?
“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing” — To Kill A Mocking Bird, Harper Lee
I have always been a reader for as long as I can remember. As a child, I read everything — newspaper that was used to wrap groceries, silly magazines, porn, children’s books, literary novels and what not! Since my resources were limited, I was always on the lookout for something to read. I never had any bias against any genre. It was pure love for words and how they are all strung together to make meaning that resonated with strangers. When life ceases to make sense, there was always a world somebody else built that made sense. Even when everybody else in my hostel room was lost in the textbooks the night before the exam, I curled up with a novel. Reading was never an option in my life. It was as important as the air I breathe.
There was a depressing time when reading a book felt like a herculean task. Words started reminding me of the things that I wanted to erase out of my memory. Reading a book made me cry a river in those days. The stories or meaning didn’t matter. The feeling of having the book in my hands and staring at the black letters was enough. I don’t remember a single thing in the books that I read during that time. But I could never stop doing it altogether. I continued to buy books and visited libraries. Somehow I was in the middle of books itself meant something to me. That phase lasted a few months. But I hold on to the books like they were the last bit of oxygen left for me in this world. Gradually I started feeling myself again and once again I felt alive. It would have been easier to let go of the reading at that stage rather than persisting through that mind-numbing pain. But how can one let go of breathing?
