By the age of twelve, I had already read a decent number of children’s classics and novels. Later that year, my paternal grandmother passed away, leaving their 22-year-old home empty. I had never been very close to my grandparents, so snooping around the house and rummaging through their stuff was out of question. Now, both Read more…

Literary expressions had caught my fascination from an early age. As a teenager, I used to jot down quotes and song lyrics on my room’s wall. I did that both to motivate myself and to gain a clarity of thought. Now, I had been extremely lucky to have gotten the right to education and a Read more…

I have always enjoyed a good story and thanked my lucky stars I was born in a family of avid readers and wonderful storytellers. In fact, even before I had learned to read on my own, my mum would read me captivating fairy tales and Assamese folklore every afternoon. My dad would take over in Read more…

Synopsis: The Vignes sisters have been identical and inseparable since forever. However, their adult lives are anything but. Destiny parted their paths long before adulthood beckoned. Having grown up together in a small, southern black community, the twins ran away at the age of sixteen. Ten years later, their daily lives are the only thing Read more…

“Wait a minute, Solomon. I’ve got something for you,” these were the words of Dwarka ammachi, or grandma. She was the eldest and the most pious person in our local church. The eighth grader me surmised that it was some wonderful present or a savory delicacy, or that she was perhaps in need of some Read more…

Love at first sight? Maybe not, but definitely a partner for a lifetime. This is just how I would describe my fascination for reading. I believe that reading is a journey. We begin from alphabets, then move on to captivating illustrations, before making some imperfect sentences from our limited vocabulary. Then comes a stage when Read more…

I attribute my love for reading to two different instances. The first is a faint childhood memory. I was lying on my bed, along with my brother, and our mother was reading to us. We are young – maybe five and seven respectively. Bedtime stories were an inseparable part of our daily routine, especially when Read more…

It is a well-established fact that books are the most loyal friends in the world. They can help you escape from all the troubles in life and transport you to the magical world of fantasy. That said, I had not always been a voracious reader. In my early days as a reader, I was someone Read more…

I had no idea that our recent move to a big city would turn out to be such a pivotal moment in my life. To put things into perspective, I had been brought up in a quaint town, where people were warm and friendly. However, the new and unfeeling city environment made me feel lost Read more…

It is strange how a single word – books – can evoke a myriad of memories, almost in a flashback-like manner. It all started back in my school days, when me and my siblings would fight for the best stickers for our brown-cover books. Looking back on those days, it never occurred to me that Read more…