Honestly I never planned or thought of raising a reader, but the first board book I bought filled me with so much of happiness that all I wanted was to hoard books for my little one.Those cute little books with such bright colour and texture where a delight to flip.And hence started our journey towards the world of books.

While growing up I saw my elder sister glued to books.She would even read while having dinner at times and when asked would say she is about to reach the climax and can leave the food but not the book.Her love for books was never ending and so was her collection starting from famous fives to mills and boons to classics.I never bought a single book honestly it was all her collection.

I remember my father reading stories every night before we use to sleep from the famous Chandamama or Panchatantra.It was those bedtime stories which compelled me to read and love reading initially.When my father would not read to us, me and my brother would take turns to read stories and we always asked for more when my father read those to us.And would doze off to sleep even before the story finished.

I grew up in the era when subscriptions meant magazine for mothers and comics for us.I grew up reading Cha Cha Chaudhary ,Pinky,Archies,Tin Tin before I graduated to Nancy Drew and famous five.Mills and Boons came much later for me.

It was during my holidays after my Xth board when I read a book by an Indian author and fell in love with the style of writing and realised how much I feel connected.Reading became my hobby and my imagination took me to places I have never been.Throughout my college and MBA I used my library card for course books right before examination rest part of the year it was all about exploring different genre.

As I mentioned earlier I never planned to raise a reader I just bought books at different stages and eventually fell for raising a reader.As a parent all I want is the best for my baby and the habit of reading is the best I can do for him.I want him to see the world in a wider sense, when we read it opens so many perspective and widens our thinking process more than intelligent reading makes us smart.

I am waiting for my son to grow up so that we both can go to the oxford book store at Barakhambha road, New Delhi where I have so many fond memories of reading dates with my besties, we loved smelling those books and loved flipping thorough sipping the coffee we could afford occasionally from our pocket money and paying in turns for each other on every visit.We sat there and made our bucket list of books and saved money to buy those.

So as I take you forward with our journey of #raisingareader I wanted to share the story behind my love for books.Watch this space for more on Raising a reader.

Posting a video of my tiny reader in action…

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