The little wooden shelf

Asterix, Nancy Drews, Famous Five, Hardy Boys, Archies comics and comics based on India mythology were staple afternoon fodder during the summer holidays. School closed late March and reopened the first week of June. We spent the first month of our holidays with my maternal grandmother and every first of May made the twenty four hour which very often could turn to a thirty hour train journey to Chennai to spend time with my paternal grandparents and cousins. More about that another day.

Even though it was the summer and school was closed we had a routine. We were allowed to sleep in until seven am! (My thoughts exactly!) Though it was impossible to sleep in after that. The Subrabadam (morning prayer chants) played at high volume on the radio cum cassette player or two-in-one, the maid was in a hurry to finish her morning chores I’d sweeping and washing utensils and rush to the next home, the blender created a delicious cacophony with spicy ingredients grinding their way to a chutney that would accompany delicious warm idlis (steamed rice dumplings) or dosas (savory rice pancake) and last but not the least, my mother muttering how a lazy I was, our neighbor’s daughter was up and helping her mother with household chores. Each morning I grudgingly peeled myself off the bed and my dreams, reluctantly shoved a cup of with milk with Bournvita (how I hated milk) and bathed to get ready for breakfast.

We had a highly regimented post breakfast routine. My brother and I had to work on math for an hour. The math exercises were age based, additions, subtractions, simple division and multiplication tables if you were younger and math problems involving simple equations and long divisions as you got older. After that, we had to practice handwriting. Then there was lunch after which my grandmother had her afternoon siesta. This was our time. This is when I devoured the books I would pick up from the local library or exchange with my friends. The books had a pecking order, for example, an Archies digest was equivalent to two comic books on Indian Mythology. A newer Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys (the one with real pictures versus drawing) were equal to two secret sevens or Famous fives and so on. While I followed these unwritten rules, I also had access to a secret stash of books that was not on anyone’s list. Old Readers Digests from 1950 – 1970. I encountered these by accident.

The bedroom in my grandmother’s house had a triangular corner. This corner was used to stash the additional floor mattresses needed when we had guests over. The corner was hidden behind a curtain, which also meant it was a corner where I could get some peace and quiet, cry when I was upset or hide from my annoying younger brother and friend. That sacred corner had a tiny wooden shelf stacked with papers and books. It had been there forever. One hot, boring afternoon, I decided to explore the contents of the shelf. I pulled down one stack. It was covered with a thick layer of brown dust. I carefully brushed off the dust away from the mattress and started leafing through the books.

It was Readers Digests that my father subscribed to before he his job took him to the Middle East. I read several short stories, and found them engaging even if I did not understand all of them. I read about ABBA, Stephen Hawking, the famous Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan, NASA and several others that I seemed to have forgotten. I read my favorite quote there “A ship that is anchored at harbor is safe but also goes nowhere”. That quote has been a principle that I have lived by. Where would I have found my guiding star but for that little wooden shelf in my grandma’s house?