For the love of......

For some very weird reason I have always had a knack of getting attracted towards old faded stuff. I cannot help myself but get drawn towards faded, old battered clothes, yellowed books, rusted jewellery, old men (George Clooney – Sexy!!) or anything else for that matter. I love the rustiness of it all and the urge to rescue them overpowers me. Each of them has a story. The slick lines on their body, the washed colours, and the broken edges, torn like scars on a soldier. So yeah that’s me probably being weird for the rest of the world but well, I hardly care!

On a recent shopping spree, I invariably got engaged in an endless haggling match with a second-hand book vendor. Unfortunately since I do not have a continuous stream of money flowing into my pocket and the vendor refused to budge from his quoted number, the effort went in futile. This left me in a rather sad and grumpy mood, to which effect my friend innocently asked, “Why do you need to go to desperate lengths to get a few torn dilapidated books?”

I looked at him, aghast and delved into a rather long and breathless speech; that for him must have been French.

“..Because those very torn, old books have something to say! Secrets to be unravelled! There’s a certain mystique about them and combined with the intoxicating aroma of those aged pages, they are a masterpiece. I do not simply buy them, it’s a rescue act! They are rehabilitated from dark, dingy, make-shift roadside shelves to the warm, cosy insides of polished teakwood cabinet, away from the prying hands of ignorant sellers, rough stinky fingers replaced by adoring, careful ones leafing through delicate pages. The feeling of abandonment replaced by the happiness of being loved and finally finding camaraderie amongst the neighbouring fiction or the-next-shelf romance novel. For me books are living breathing entities with souls of their own!!”

So that was more than enough to shut him up! Yes, I do agree that it would need a hell lot of imagination to believe in all of it but frankly I think we should have a Book Revolution, one that is aimed at garnering respect for books and understanding their worth.

Ode to my books:

Pretty books sitting quiet and prim

Neatly stacked piles of adventures, all for keeps

What they stand for is what most miss

But they’ll still be my dearest lovelies!!

LOVE J

Nerd glasses & Cute bookmarks

ADITI