For the joy of it...

Recently, I re-discovered my own long lost passion of reading. Sadly, its not as frequent as before, but i am trying to continue
March, is the National Reading Month and it’s only right to spread the word. The benefit of a lifelong reader and above all the knowledge and discipline gained is priceless!
Growing up, reading for me was my school books, academic related and may be some "Chacha Chaudhry" An Indian comic book. But that’s it.
Once on a trip, a friend introduced me to Archie comics, I loved them. I devoured them. In school, our librarian would encourage us to read the Enid Blyton’s, the Noddy books and so on. Honestly, I read them only because I had to! But slowly and surely, I got more and more engrossed in books. I got faster and more experimental in my choices. Medical thrillers, Lawyers stories and mystery books fascinated me. With a library opening right around the corner, I joined and would go in at least bi-weekly and issue books. With a good friend, we traded books. She would read Betty Mahmoody and I would read Jean Sasson. We both would brag and then exchange the books to get the details. And my passion grew. Sadly, I didn’t read as many classics! A very dear friend had read Sense and Sensibility at fourteen. Wow!
With SD, our collection of books and passion of reading grew even further. Though, we both don’t get as much time now, we still manage to read once in a while.
So far, it seems V is following our foot steps. We take her to a store, grab a book from the shelf and for the next twenty minutes, she will be on the trolley turning page after page. Of course, she isn’t reading yet, but books, the pictures and story engages her. I was surprised that in a toy store, she left the doll she was playing with it, the minute SD showed her an Elmo Book! At home, she will happily go to her books cubby, get her book out and grab her Naani, Mama, SD or me and say Story Time. If she is a bit fussy for food, I tell her, Read a book and she will happily run to her chair, eat and listen to the story and the pictures that go along with it. SD and I love to get her more books. Her grandparents send mythological books from back home. We read to her, she follows the story and enjoys it and asks for "More!"
I remember my MIL's honest confession a while back "When you would read books to V when she was five months old, I thought it was foolish. But now at seventeen months, when I see her respecting the books and enjoying reading and being read to, it was a wise idea" A close friend of mine, a mom herself, advised me early on, "They are never too
Young to be read to"

I really hope, we can continue cultivating the seeds of reading and passion for books in V. And yes, it is hard for a toddler to sit and read for fifteen minutes, but you have to make a start somewhere!