The gift of a book coupon found me
searching for Kitab Khana. A helpful assistant at the end of a phone
line directed me to Davar’s College and a brisk walk
later found me on unfamiliar familiar ground.
The area had been a haunt in earlier times, but the years
in-between had wrought changes.
I expected to find the usual tired
entrance lined with dusty shelves and well thumbed books – a memory from past
visits to other stores. Instead, I was
greeted by a frontage straight out of a movie (or a dream?). Bemused, I entered upon a most delightful
scene: books on shelves, books on display, books arranged here, there and
everywhere. Crisp, newly minted, fresh off the press books. Hardbound, paperback, spiral bound books. Colourful, sober,
titillating, serious books. Books of every kind. The silence was welcoming as were the
comfy sofas, some already occupied by browsers with noses deep in – yes -
books. And, the fragrant aroma of
printed paper intermingled with that of freshly brewing coffee from the coffee
bar at the end of this huge Aladdin’s cave. Or, heaven.
Like a child in cookie paradise, I skipped
from display to display lifting covers and sampling snippets. I was certainly going to use that gift
coupon: what I wanted was that one special book - one that would count as both
a discovery and a memory. I came across
old friends among the titles and encountered many new ones and then, almost at
the end of the ‘cavern’, I found it. The illustration on the cover and the
intriguing title brought on that old familiar feeling – love at first sight!
Among my treasured experiences are
the verses of Ogden Nash and Hillaire Belloc and the
quirky humour of James Thurber: the ultimate gateway to imagination, the
involuntary chuckle and the Walter Mitty experience (if
you haven’t had that, you’ve really missed something). And now, I have added Shel
Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends.
A turn of the pages takes you to a magical, whimsical place where the author
says what he means and means what he says with childlike honesty and adult
wisdom. Who could resist this invitation?
“If
you are a dreamer, come in
If
you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar
A
hope-er, a pray-er, a magic
bean buyer…
If
you’re a pretender, come sit by my fire
For
we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come
in!
Come
in!”
Have you ever sat on the seashore at
sunset and imagined an enchanted place beyond the horizon? No? Then, be
tempted. Do it.
