Currently I am in Bangalore, doing nothing much. I escaped from Delhi for 10 days break, to be with my eldest brother. I kind of needed to do this. Here I am spending time with my 12 years old niece. Both of us are having a whale of a time. It feels good to be with someone who is as young as her! I am behaving like a teenager and she tries to behave like an adult!
She shares my love for reading. I have discovered a lot of YA books via her! I find that she is on fantasies and mysteries in a big way. When I was her age, I used to read Enid Blytons, Nancy Drews, Hardy boys along with Agatha Christies (She has inherited my entire collection!). We were still on kiddie books. I started reading Perry Masons much later. However, I never read any fantasy books at that age. Maybe, there were not many books available in that genre for us. C S Lewis and Tolkein have got popular here, only recently after the Harry Potter books. I am now reading Christopher Paolini and C S Lewis from her collection. I think I will make up for missing out on those books. Both of us are going to read a lot of graphic novels.
Next I plan to introduce her to poetry. That way, I can slowly force her to read my poetry. At least one person in my family should read and admire my poetry!
We will do all this in the midst of gorging, shopping and just having some plain wholesome fun! It sure feels good to be away from work, from Delhi, and from all kinds of daily drudgery. I had forgotten that wool gathering can be so good for the soul!