CHAPTER FOUR

12 Years of age. Summer Vacation. Half pant, t-shirt, and the winding roads of the Town [Fort] where I was floating around with my bicycle. Town was the dream place for me to roam... the old buildings with great architecture, each building is a heritage, old statues, with wetted body and summer was collecting revenue while riding. And ice cream /candy was not affordable. The remarkable indication of summer was a yellow flower tree and a beautiful red Gulmohar. Every summer, the yellow flowers fall down, and the yellow road steals our attention. Several times I have picked many yellow flowers from Jehangir, Harnimon Circle, Mumbai University and other places in Town. Often I decorated my bicycle with these flowers... but there was a special treat of summer for me... The Booksellers resided below the yellow flower tree. I am grateful to summer for introducing me to such a beautiful world.

That was a time when, the booksellers through piles of books had decorated streets. Many book lovers used to browse the books for hours. The piles of the books and their smell, encyclopedias, Shakespeare, world war History, world literature of Twentieth Century... Most of the books were old and all the books were in English. The titles were heavier than the books, many of them I couldn't read. I was eager to browse the books, to turn the old, dusty pages. I was always lost in there. Uncountable titles, how much to read and how much to understand. I had the same question at each of my visit ‘When will I read this all’? When will I visit the unknown world? When will I get lost in the world of books?

Many booksellers used to yell at me I remember Suresh, who used to sit on the encyclopedias, either he used to have Paan or clean his teeth with a small safety pin...Once when I took a book, Suresh got furious and screamed at me...
[ye idhar timepass karne ko aata kya ? ]Are you coming to do time pass here? I was scared... He deflated one of the tires of my bicycle. I wanted to cry.. I said, [main idhar time pass karne nahi aata] I don’t come to do time pass... And I left, riding a bicycle is a great thing but carrying, pushing a bicycle is horrible I was seeing those hathgadiwalas’ they had a heavy load and more sweat than me... that was my first introduction to those who work hard. Those people are still the hardest working people I have ever seen in my life... Summer collects more revenue from them. It was a lesson for me...
After a week, I again visited Suresh. I showed him a 5 rupees note and indicated towards the piles of children’s book. Each book was for 5 rupees. He stopped cleaning his teeth and looked at me without anger, he asked me to choose. I was a customer I realized that. I began browsing. I took one; it was an illustrated fairytale with big fonts. I don’t know, what went through his mind, but he didn’t take money. Thereafter I continued visiting Suresh and over the years was introduced to other booksellers as well. I had a good relationship with those booksellers and the whole area of town. Smell of First rain and books [whether its new or old] always impresses me.... Years passed, and I enjoyed dedicating my nights to words. Many times I used to visit town... but summer was always different...