There is something about this smell….

I do not need to repeat that I love books and have been reading since I was a kid. What is new for you guys is that I had developed this habit from my mother who read a lot, and she still does, mostly in Assamese. She loves solving crossword too, putting her vast stock of words to use. 🙂 Back in time, inspite of her busy schedule of bringing up 3 daughters and doing all the household chores herself, she still managed time for a page or two every day. In those days, I was a voracious reader, yes, literally voracious. I read almost anything &everything that was fiction. I loved to be transported to a world of the author’s making, living a life with them for some time. I was such a reader that when I had nothing else, I read my elder sister’s English text book which contained some stories too. Soon after I was able to read and write Assamese (my mother tongue) comfortably, I started reading my Maa’s novels, magazines, etc. from her young days, too. The battererd, bruised and beaten covers – hard cover as well as paperback, yellowed loose pages, a silverfish (I guess that’s what the worm in the books is called!) crawling out with some rapid movement and the peculiar whiff of smell that comes out of it – it was bliss…totally!! And soon I would be found lying on my belly and getting lost in those yellowed pages.