A Reflection of My Personal Progression Through Literature

"I believe, sometimes, that the whole world has an aching heart." Reading this at the young age of 9 was difficult to comprehend. Before I picked up the novel called Because of Winn Dixie, I had never heard of the concept of melancholy or bothered to understand why people truly act the way they do. Soon after reading the book, I started watching my parents more carefully. I no longer saw them as two immovable superheroes, but people who had pasts I did not know about and feelings I could not begin to fathom. I only realised a while later that my changing perception of viewing all those around me came from the book I read to pass time. Because of Winne Dixie began my personal progression through literature.

Books soon became the answer to everything. Moving from US to India at the age of 10 felt like the end of the world. I did not know how to cope with a new language, a new school, a new city and a new stranger pinching my cheeks every day. My mother saw my struggle to adjust and responded by giving me a large stack of crisp adventure novels of different colours and sizes. When I immersed myself in new worlds and went on exciting expeditions with Robin Hood or Nancy Drew, I grew to be more comfortable with my new surrounding which were tame in comparison. My new classroom no longer felt daunting after I spent so much time visualising adventures in dark woods and terrifying caves.

My inner Nancy Drew was soon replaced in my early teen years by a devout Jane Austen fan. After reading Pride and Prejudice I not only fell for Mr. Darcy, but developed a passion for writing and history. My love for writing rivalled that of my love for reading. It led to more participation in school as opposed to reading all day. I wrote for the magazine, took an interest in media and ended up being chosen for a sponsored mass media program in Japan. I went from reading about travelling and different cities to imbibing Japanese culture first- hand. The trip served as a turning point in my life as my communications improved and interests widened. In retrospect I trace it all back to wanting to be as bold and outgoing as Elizabeth Bennet.

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Reading classics by the likes of Austen and Dickens did more than encourage me to be more active, but sparked a curiosity of the societies they wrote about. Each of their novels was a glimpse into the past and into worlds I was intrigued by. To understand them more, I could not only rely on fictional tales, no matter how entertaining they were.

However, when I turned to books about fallen empires and infamous leaders, and their truth read like incredible stories themselves. Reading about History quickly turned into an intense passion. Along with a few fellow history enthusiasts, I co-founded a research website called Delhi Down the Ages, where we spent hours and days studying how monuments in Delhi have changed since their creation. This project went beyond the texts we studied in school and those I read at home; it involved people and societies, whom we interacted with to understand the changes through time better. Books introduced me to an immense world of culture and politics which formed the society we know today.

The complexities of societal development and historical incidents were dense and draining. After a while I was not enjoying them as much as I used to. On one of our research trips in Delhi, I picked up a few second hand books by the roadside. Among them was a battered copy of The Night Circus. A complete deviation from my stack of autobiographies and battle epics, this novel reintroduced a magical sense of wonder I had not tapped into since I was reading Enid Blyton. It was a transcending experience to read about a world much like our own, filled with fantastical illusions and extraordinary people. My desire to engage in creativity and experience beauty was overwhelming after simply reading a well written novel. Magical Realism kept me inspired.

I have often wondered if who I am is because of what I read? In addition to answering questions that never occurred, as well as the ones I would dare not ask - Books have tremendously accelerated my knowledge of what was, and made me rather curious about what might be? Fiction became believable when characters, uncannily similar to me - solved problems uncannily parallel to mine. It is no wonder, I can track my years through my bookshelf.

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