So, now that it is established that, the kind of books I have been reading while I was in Class 6, one would notice that I haven’t read any contemporary writers in English fiction. I mean, I wasn’t reading anything new and happening. And in the years 2002-03, what was the thing that was the most happening? I may not know what was the most trending thing in other parts of the world, but one of the latest things, discussing which would make you look cool, intellectual and belonging to the trend was, HARRY POTTER.

The Harry Potter storm was beginning to make its presence obvious in our school and this was primarily because of the movie and not the book.And this was for the very first time, an English movie was generating so much buzz, because, I belong to that generation where until Class 6 I haven’t watched a single English movie. And this was the case with many of my classmates as well. And this could be attributed to the lack of many English Movie channels available on Cable Television and secondly, to the fact that the stereotype that was established in our circles that, English movies may have a bad influence on us (You know what I mean).

So, you can imagine that when you are growing up in an environment where watching English movies on television wasn’t encouraged, shelling out money in theatres was out of the question for many of us. So, those who wanted to look cool had to go through this excruciating pain of reading a novel of length not many of us would have read before. And honestly, not many found it an interesting bargain to go ahead with.

So, where did I find the motivation?

Honestly, I too didn’t find it that exciting a prospect to read such a huge novel. However, a senior of mine, whom I used to look up to (obviously, a girl) was interested in the world of Harry Potter and one can say that, she provided me with the motivation to pick up my first full-fledged novel by a contemporary author, which I was otherwise skeptical about.

And then, as they say, the rest is history.

Because the way Harry Potter continued to play a significant and tangible role in my life was huge and irreversible, which I may have to write about in a separate series of posts. However, in short, to give one a summary of the what Harry Potter means to me, one could say that, if I could sync my life with the Harry Potter movie releases, I could almost feel that I grew up along with Harry. A unique distinction only kids of my generation could boast about proudly.