Surprise!

I am lucky to have access to a grand library. IIMA’s library boasts of a collection of more than 150,000 books. For a bibliophile, a well-organized library can probably mean no less than a temple. I am not a 5-star bibliophile. Yet, when my peers throng the discotheques or find a new restaurant to relish fine tastes for their pallet on a Saturday evening, I prefer to be on my own roaming between the tall aisles of the book stacks in the library. I can sense ‘a smell of the books’. An overwhelming feeling fills me at such a time – there is so much to read and so little time. A chastising voice from inside reminds me of the unfinished books I have as backlog. The MBA programme introduced me to book genres which earlier had not come to my attention. These combined with all the earlier genres I have been following now pose the problem of choice. Instead of picking up new books to read, I just read the titles printed in bold letters across the side of the book. It has become a dare to take out just one book from such a huge collection and not let my attention get diverted to another book with an equally promising title. Gradually, I had stopped finding books. The surprise came when instead the book found me! On one of the excursions among the many I took into the library, I chanced upon a book which looked conspicuously apart from its neighbors. The ‘uniqueness’ might have been in the title as well as the cover art, I am not sure what. The subject matter just kept me hanging on as I read through the initial few pages. The reviews available on Internet confirmed that the book was a definitive work of the genre it was part of. I immediately got the book issued. A few happy reading hours after, I had added a new book genre to my kitty. It would be more difficult now to make my choices between the books, but I was not complaining. And as if to prove that this may be the only way for me to pick up new books, similar incident happened again after a month. Another random book picked and fallen in love with. How I wish that same luck would play in meeting people! Next time you do not find me answering my phone, you know which alleys I am wandering through. Some book out there is waiting for me to find it!