A Class In English.

As a student of English during my school days ,I was concerned with the art of spelling.It used to give me nightmares ,to remember that you cant write 'knife' as 'nife',where as you can write 'night',but it is not 'knight 'and also both are different.My initial endevours were directed, by one of my uncles who had alook at my school exam note books and the marks in spelling,to read everything in print and in English.So I was reading lorry headers ,as 'public'carriers and knew that 'public' it is ,and not 'pablic'.

Next was, my initiation into reading only English books.So I had a gala time reading the entire' Arabian Nights',quitely ignoring others sitting to dine with me.That was when I started knowing the pleasure of reading ,and also escaping when not being bold to face consequences of actions done, in the course of my studious life.Like, why I did not stay back for gardening at school, and why I received a'B' grade instead of the 'A' expected ,and was the norm in my household.

After this period in my life, it has been nothing but books collected during journeys, in hostels and on bus journeys and willful purchases and road side /pavement browsing and spending money.Next on a higher grade, came spending on books as offers from the' Reader's Digest'.So I have now acollection of almost 1000 books ,and Iam happily sorting and restoring whenever I feel like.

At this time I almost feel quite blissful ,and can in fact do away with my addiction to the net acquired recently.I think now about ,why should a word captivate me more than a picture?Iam not a T.V. addict.I have seen the 'World Tower' disaster carried live in C.N.N., and the T.Sunami also carried alive in all the T.V.channels live, and the rain affected Chennai and Mumbai and Bangalore .But I always go back to the imaginative presentation in a word, and rate reading in electronic mode better than watching movies on line.I feel the reason is that ,the mind always wants to involve itself.

So the more the mind is asked to take it easy ,it rebels and finds another way to involve itself.That is why a text message is advanced to a picture message ,and then a voice message and at the end you still call the people up and talk.Suppose you had sent the same person a letter with words, he could have sat and read and read again and imagined the walk with you ,and sat there in a room where the dusk is falling and after putting the lights on, start writing .Nothing equals this picture to perfection.Many poems have been written this way, and so it will be and I want words to be so in me too, a part of my personality.

Jayamala.