Arrest me… I am a Bibliophile

Bibliophilia or bibliophilism is the love of books, and a bibliophile or bookworm is an individual who loves and frequently reads books.

My love for books started as a kid. I used to wait for summer holidays because that meant an unlimited supply of "Chacha Chaudhry", "Panchatantra", "Tinkle". I would have finished the books that we picked up from the train station and would be eyeing the comics that the other kid was reading. Every station halt for me meant scouting for book stores and then asking dad to buy "just 2 more please."

My mom would constantly give me the stern look saying "Why don't you read your curriculum rather than wasting time on these meaningless stories?" The 10-year-old me struggled to explain that reading a story took me to another world which was completely created by me — and that I liked it there.

I remember borrowing books from the school library and instantly fell in love with Enid Blyton's Famous Five series, Five Find Outers, Malory Towers. I imagined myself being one of the sleuths — reading these books in hiding during lunch breaks and even under my blanket!

I loved Famous Five especially as I am myself an Island girl and would imagine one of the islands as the backdrop and my friends and I as the investigators.

I found the library as my safe place. My castle of knowledge.

I slowly graduated to Nancy Drew, Ruskin Bond, and then a whole new world opened up — Sidney Sheldon, Danielle Steel, Jeffrey Archer. Then came Paulo Coelho and his words hit differently.

Books have been my constant companion through every phase of life. Through heartbreaks and celebrations. Through long flights and longer waits. Through those 3am nights when sleep wouldn't come.

If loving books is a crime, arrest me. I plead guilty — and I'd do it all over again.