Pretending to be locked-in and sad
The Books which held me at home
Why introverts like me are having a ball…
For the last one month, I have been living a lie. I have been pretending to be upset with the PM’s lockdown decision. I have been pretending to be sad about not getting an opportunity to be “out”, like hanging out with my friends, eating-out, shopping, watching movies etc. It’s all a lie. I hardly do either of these things. My life consists of working like a slave, binge-eating Friday to Sunday, parenting and one hour of yoga.
Driving to work and back are the high points. Sometimes talk to my family during my drive. Sometimes I just enjoy the silence and driving. This is the only thing I am missing out on these days.
Everything else, I am actually happy to miss out on. Infact I managed to read so many books in the last one month. Books I didn’t know I had because I had not organized the book shelves for so long.
So I finally read the testament and was glad that I had a something great to read after that because it was a disappointment. I don’t know why. Maybe because I had expected a little of Offred this time. Or maybe the second half of the book was just too rushed.
So I picked up Fahrenheit 451 after that. Oh and before you say it, yes I have been slightly obsessed with the dystopian/ sci-fi genres these last few days. My favourite remains the road because it’s so real and for a few days atleast, after I read it, I switched off the inner-robot and became a human. You would do that too if you imagined yourself as the father who has to teach his child to be a good human being, while doing everything in his power to survive. Or the child who wakes up every day wondering if tomorrow will come. Or how long will he last in a world where people eat people.
So coming back to Fahrenheit 451. It’s about a world where democracy and equality means burning up all the books because they teach you something different. Imagine being arrested for keeping a book. Such a far-fetched idea, you would think. No country does that. Not now anymore. But this has happened before. During wars and politics and chaos and unrest, this has happened all over the world. I liked the pretend family reference in the book. When I first read it, I saw my drawing-room there. Not that I have screens on 3 or 4 walls but then I do have 3 or 4 screens in a single room so it was too close. Almost like the author could see into the future and see my present.
I started my first ever Arthur C Clarke book, only to realize that I need to first read 2001 a space odyssey before I read 3001 the final odyssey. So instead, I read his other famous book that I was recommended to read — against the fall of night. The book is about an immortal boy, who is unhappy living in Diaspar, earth’s last city. The books is about his quest to get out, find out the truth, and see the rest of the world. This one, I read slow. Because it was pretty but too short.
There are other books I started but left midway because of too many interruptions or because I did not understand the plot. His dark material, star wars, and paradise lost, to name a few.
The lockdown extension, if it comes, will still be welcome because I still have some 25 more books to read.
