Transformation
In March of 1996, my father gifted me something special for my birthday. He bought me Dorling Kindersley's Science Encyclopaedia. And what followed is a series of transformations.
My father was worried that my brother and I would seldom read it.
To his surprise I was rather immersed in it right from the moment I set my eyes on it. Now it was my mother's turn to be concerned. She was worried that these books have come at the wrong time of my academic calendar - just before my final exams! They had to forcefully take it away from me. Stop me from reading?? - there was no such precedence in my upbringing as I was not much of a bookworm.
I remember fighting with my brother to get exclusive reading time. So my father had to follow it up with two more books - Encyclopaedia Britannica and Children's Illustrated Encyclopaedia, just so that he could keep us from fighting each other. Being a government employee, these rather expensive books (10 x his salary) were a huge investment for him. In fact it took him a couple of years to repay the cost. But as Benjamin Franklin puts it "an investment in knowledge pays the best interest".
Needless to say I passed my exams with flying colours. The following summer vacation was well spent reading them to my heart content. For a kid that grew up reading text books with black-and-white line diagrams, each high definition colour picture spoke not a thousand but a million words. Then over the next 7 years these books became my 'Google' - I neither had access to a computer nor lived close to an internet browsing centre.
All these books have transformed me in more than one way. I remember being a very religious (!) person up until then. But when I found in these books the answers to all my questions, I was proselytized to being a firm believer in science - religion could not give satisfying answers to the questions of an inquisitive teenager. I would say this is when I decided to read science in my graduate program and strive to have a research career. Later on, he added two more books to my personal library - "Why in the world?" and "Did you know?". Maybe I had started to ask too many questions for him to handle? :)
Twenty years hence, I realize that these books have fulfilled their destiny - they have changed my life forever and it is time for them to transform many more children's lives. As my birthday gift, I am donating these books to a library in a school run for underprivileged children in my hometown. I am very possessive of these childhood treasures of mine. I would seldom lend them to anyone. It is hard for me to let go but these books need a new purpose and a bigger destiny - from one child to a whole school..! This act means it is a rebirth both for the books and (in some sense) me as well. :')
My father was worried that my brother and I would seldom read it.
To his surprise I was rather immersed in it right from the moment I set my eyes on it. Now it was my mother's turn to be concerned. She was worried that these books have come at the wrong time of my academic calendar - just before my final exams! They had to forcefully take it away from me. Stop me from reading?? - there was no such precedence in my upbringing as I was not much of a bookworm.
I remember fighting with my brother to get exclusive reading time. So my father had to follow it up with two more books - Encyclopaedia Britannica and Children's Illustrated Encyclopaedia, just so that he could keep us from fighting each other. Being a government employee, these rather expensive books (10 x his salary) were a huge investment for him. In fact it took him a couple of years to repay the cost. But as Benjamin Franklin puts it "an investment in knowledge pays the best interest".
Needless to say I passed my exams with flying colours. The following summer vacation was well spent reading them to my heart content. For a kid that grew up reading text books with black-and-white line diagrams, each high definition colour picture spoke not a thousand but a million words. Then over the next 7 years these books became my 'Google' - I neither had access to a computer nor lived close to an internet browsing centre.
All these books have transformed me in more than one way. I remember being a very religious (!) person up until then. But when I found in these books the answers to all my questions, I was proselytized to being a firm believer in science - religion could not give satisfying answers to the questions of an inquisitive teenager. I would say this is when I decided to read science in my graduate program and strive to have a research career. Later on, he added two more books to my personal library - "Why in the world?" and "Did you know?". Maybe I had started to ask too many questions for him to handle? :)
Twenty years hence, I realize that these books have fulfilled their destiny - they have changed my life forever and it is time for them to transform many more children's lives. As my birthday gift, I am donating these books to a library in a school run for underprivileged children in my hometown. I am very possessive of these childhood treasures of mine. I would seldom lend them to anyone. It is hard for me to let go but these books need a new purpose and a bigger destiny - from one child to a whole school..! This act means it is a rebirth both for the books and (in some sense) me as well. :')
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