Fairy-tale moments of reliving my childhood

Spice of Life: The beautiful visuals of Cinderella, Snow White and Goldilocks transported me half a century back when these characters used to float and swirl not only in my dreams and day dreams, but also in the math class

I’ve been shouted at, chided and mocked at by all and sundry, including my husband, children and mother (who is no more now). This is because of the overwhelming and almost spilling presence of all types of books, ranging from children’s classics, comics, fiction, drama, poetry, history, philosophy, literary theory, magazines, and newspapers, in my house. I haven’t been able to discard my course books and notes even after retirement! I keenly felt the touch of the books when I was promoted as the principal of a premier institution and robbed of the pleasure of classroom teaching (though I tried my best to stay in touch with the books by taking a class of postgraduate students once in a while).

Many a times, I had imagined myself as Cinderella, with innocent eyes and high-heeled sparkling shoes. All these colourful representations of the characters from children’s classics have kept the child in me alive. (Representative photo)

At home, the books kept on piling up as the enthusiasm kept growing and became a passion when I became an English teacher. I kept adding books, some read, some unread, some consumed passionately, some digested with difficulty, some enjoyed thoroughly, and some even re-read. 50% or more of the books remain unopened, but all of them are my prized possessions that I plan to read in this lifetime. Of all the books, the most precious to me still are children’s fairy tales and classics, Amar Chitra Katha and Chandamama. Eventually, we all grow up, in age and in mind, but somehow my love for childhood fairy tales has always lingered.

During the recent winter rain, when I saw the pages from A Book of Fairy Tales scattered here and there due to the wind, half torn, wet and muddy, my heart missed a beat. I had kept these books outside to dry, as they were termite-eaten and fungus-infested. Despite everybody’s coaxing, I had not thrown them. The beautiful visuals of Cinderella, Snow White, Red Riding Hood, Peter Pan, Bambi and Goldilocks transported me half a century back, when these characters used to float and swirl, not only in my dreams and day dreams, but also in the math class. Many a times, I had imagined myself as Cinderella, with innocent eyes and high-heeled sparkling shoes. All these colourful representations of the characters from children’s classics have kept the child in me alive.

Most of those of my generation, milieu and class are the children of the colonial hangover when we were made to read western classics as a status symbol. Till date, I have kept these faded, yellowed classics as relics in the attic that I visit once or twice a year. For hours and hours, I linger there, opening the pouches of memory.

I passed on the love for stories to my twin daughters and son, providing them with the right kind of books in sync with their age and taste. In their times, there was a resurgence of national literature. Hence, tales from Panchatantra, Hitopdesh, Mahabharata and Ramayana trickled into children’s literature in colourful animated representations. But Cinderella and Snow White still retain their hegemony among children’s classics.

Now with more time up my sleeve, I got down to reading out stories from these battered and tattered books to my granddaughter. To my dismay, all fairy tales are available in both English and Hindi and many more languages on the internet. As soon as my granddaughter comes visiting, she insists on watching them on TV. In this super digital era, the static characters from the faded books are losing their charm. I’m sure there must be some die-hard fan out there like me, pulling the children of this generation back to story books and retrieving the glory of our childhood characters. I’ve been partially successful for when my granddaughter comes, she brings out a faded classic and asks me to read the story, and that is my favourite time of the day when I relive my childhood. sangeetahandadr@gmail.com

The writer is a former principal of Government Mohindra College, Patiala