Experiencing the world through books

 I remember, I was of just 3 or 4, at that time my mother used to work as school teacher, the school was having significant large library. She used to issue few books per week to tell the stories to me and my younger sister in the free time. In that way, she introduced me the wonderful world of books, answering my never ending  questions and telling the same story by showing the pictures again and again and never loosing her patience. I am very thankful to her, she is the one who developed my interest in books and today she complains about it, that I read too much and sometimes I forget everything around me while reading a book, but I cannot help, she is the "culprit". As I grew up I started reading as a habit and I could finish a book of considerable size (of around 300-350 pages) in a day or two. One day my father suggested me to read English books, he is having collection of around five hundred books written by various authors including R.L Stevenson, W. Somerset Maugham, Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Mark Twain. The very first English book that I started reading was 'Kidnapped' by R.L Stevenson. The book was of abridged edition, having just 280 pages. But I took 6 months to read that book. The reason was simple after almost every sentence I was referring the dictionary to find out the meanings of couple of words. Sometimes knowing the words was not enough, I used to get confuse by the usage of words in a sentence. I tried to just give up, but then my father used to come in the picture to explain me the sentence. At last when I finished the book, I was relieved, I felt like I have completed the 'Mission Impossible', I just kept the book in a shelf and told this 'good news' to my father. My father asked me whether I enjoyed reading in English. I replied "yes off course" with hesitation. Then my father smiled and gave me another English book, the book of edited short stories written by various authors. Although I started reading that book but never completed.  I  just continued reading "Marathi"(my mother tongue) books and I thought like I will never read English books in future. Then one day, I got a book called "Pappilon" written by 'Henry Charrière', I started reading it, I went on reading and did not stop till the end. The book narrates how the young Pappilon got trapped in a murder case and was convicted for life in French Guiana in South America, then how he was tortured there and how he kept trying to escape from the prison every time and finally succeeding to be free.
   I liked the theme of the book, I liked the style of writing, I was so involved with the story of the unfortunate 'Pappilon' that I started considering myself in that place. I felt cheated when the juries convicted him, I was worried and angry when he sets off for Penal settlement of French Guiana, I was feeling like I am experiencing the never ending loneliness when he was sent for solitary confinement for two years and  I felt like a free bird when Pappilon  jumped into sea and escaped to Venezuela using coconut sack from the notorious Devil's Island. That was the book which I actually lived while reading. I haven't been to French Guiana or South America before, but because of this book, it feels like I have been there before and I have experienced the brutal life at penal colony. Whenever I visit sea shore, I start imagining, how Pappilon would have had managed to cross the sea on coconut sack without knowing the exact distance of travel and destination. You can imagine how desperate he was to become free, to attain his freedom, to obtain the basic need of a every living being. No doubt Pappilon is one of my favorite books. Unfortunately I don't have that book with me now, it was lost couple of years back, but I have kept each and every word from that book in my memory and I start reading it again and again through my memory whenever I wish.
    Then I started reading more and more English books.  Someone (I don't remember really, who has said this) has said books are indeed good companions.  They guide you, they help you, they make you laugh, they share the knowledge, they often take you on voyage to show the places on this earth which otherwise you wouldn't have imagined to visit.

       Few years back I  purchased the book called 'Kon-Tiki' written by Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian adventurer. I was aware of the background of the expedition described in this book. Author was trying to prove his theory regarding the origin of some Polynesians settlers in Polynesian islands, Oceania, according to him, these people actually migrated from South America to Polynesia by covering thousands of Kilometers. They navigated using balsa (a type of tree mainly found in Peru) rafts and crossed the whole of the Pacific and reached the Polynesia. In order to prove his theory, 'Thor Heyerdahl' along with his five companions went on expedition, starting from Callao, Peru on a balsa raft constructed by them, to Polynesian islands, separated by a huge distance of almost 6000 kilometers. That was the expedition nobody ever had imagined before.The book has described how they faced difficulties in managing the funds for the expedition, how they acquired the balsa logs from the Peruvian jungle in tedious climate and rough terrain, how they acquired permission from Peruvian government to construct the raft in Peruvian naval dockyard, how they constructed the raft by just using the rope to tie the balsa logs together without using any modern method. Finally along with the water and food storage which they thought is sufficient for three months, they left for their destination. The distance was huge, there was whole pacific to travel across, the destination was uncertain and the outcome of the expedition was unknown. The adventurers were having few modern equipments like radio set, sextant etc. but still it was a big deal to navigate in a ocean on such a medieval raft. During their voyage they were introduced to a glimpses of unknown marine life. Soon they realized, they were not alone, they had got company, company of dolphins, sharks and even whales. They also experienced the marine creatures which they hadn't seen or heard before. The notable experience recorded by the author was 'the encounter with the whale'. On one night they saw a huge black creature was following  their raft and sometimes swimming under the raft. After much observation they came to know that it was a whale, huge enough to crush the raft into pieces. The whale accompanied the Kon-Tiki  for considerable duration and suddenly vanished without hurting the raft and relieving the team. Those were the experiences which they couldn't have on ship voyage, it was like experiencing the ancient man's struggle for survival. Finally book talks about their fight to land on the shore of one of the small island after almost 100 days and later their celebrations with the Polynesians.
  I just can't explain how delighted I was when these daring crew members of Kon-Tiki (a name of Polynesian god, according to legends, he lead his people to Polynesia) landed on the shore. I felt like I am one of them. If ever in future, while traveling across the pacific, I will feel like, I have been through this ocean once upon a time.
   The books have free access to the past and future. It doesn't matter in which tense you are, the books can take you to time immemorial,  they can present you the situation happened in so remote time which you can not imagine otherwise.
     I had read one book called 'Kanhoji Angre', in my college days, originally written in English and translated in Marathi by famous Marathi writer 'P. L. Deshpande' . The name of the book is a name of a person who was a admiral of the Maratha (An empire which existed before British India in today's Indian state of Maharashtra ) Navy, at the end of 17th century. It is not a novel, it is a purely historical book. The book has described the political condition of that time in the  part of western coast of India, called as "Kokan". The key players are English, Portuguese, Dutch, A warlord of African origin called 'Siddi' and the Marathas, the natives of the land. The foreign powers were trying to settle in the land in order to rule the trade across the Arabian sea. The Marathas were struggling to take back their beloved land from these foreign powers. It was a struggle to just rule the waters of Arabian sea for foreign powers, but for Marathas, it was struggle for their existence. The book explains the events happened in detail and actually takes you in that period. Even if it is historical book it is not at all boring, it excites you with romantic war descriptions.
The book mentions town of Kolaba which was a capital of 'Kanhoji Angre',  today Kolaba is famous for its beach, fort and is a popular tourist destination. I have been to Kolaba many times, today's Kolaba is obviously altogether different from the Kolaba mentioned in the book. I always try to find signs of the medieval Kolaba whenever I visit. It feels like, I am more familiar with medieval Kolaba than today's Kolaba because of this book.
   I have always enjoyed such memorable 'journeys' with the books, off course they provide you 'free tickets', 'free accommodations' and  better service than anybody.....