The door opens and I walk in, almost in a daze. I get a few smiles – from a guard to my left who seems to understand exactly what I am feeling…like he has been here long enough, observing similar souls with similar expressions.
Another is from a saleswoman to my right, standing there like a sentry, protecting her charges with all the fierceness befitting a lioness protecting her cubs.
One I get from my sister – at once exasperated, amused and laughing. She knows that once I have entered this hallowed hall, getting me out will be difficult.
But the best smile is on my face as I enter this wondrous place. I had been searching for home in the wrong places. This…this is what home was.
I see the colourful spines, waiting to be caressed. I choose one at random and open it. As I begin to read the first line, I enter a new reality; one where I am at once alone and surrounded by different but familiar friends. A reality that I create with the help of the written word in a place that is mine without contest.
As I take this headlong plunge into a world that is mine and yet not mine, I am transported to a state of being close to contentment and happiness.
When a book, an unpretentious piece of object can do all that for you why would you want anything else? So this Valentine’s day, I’d gift myself a book – and perhaps some time and quiet – so I may spend it in the company of two of the most exalted people: a book and myself.
Written as part of #ChatterPrompts
tales of Suchita 
Leave a comment