Saturday 21 June 2008

Our little addictions

Pics of Manali are taking too too long to upload here, I'll do it when I get back to my lovely ADSL connection.
My little addiction is is the internet, obviously, for not-so-obvious reasons.
My little cousin, all of 5 years old, his lil obsession is the TV.
Looking at him, I feel very VERY good about my TV-less childhood. I mean, it's an addiction, almost a drug.
He came back from Talegaon last Sunday, and the first thing he did was switch on the TV. Let it be, his mom said, he hasn't watched for so long....
So he watched, nay, monopolised the TV for two days straight, first thing in the morning, first thing after he got back from school at 6 pm (horrible school timing, 1 to 6pm) . He knows the controls of the TataSky remote better than his mother does, he knows enough to change the TV language to Hindi everytime I think that Zack and Cody (or whoever's on screen) should speak their mother tongue and not mine. And he knows enough to know that he doesn't like the English language, no not at all.
He grumbles in a pureed trilingual mix of Konkani, Marathi and Hindi.
"Don't like English"he mutters, after I explain to him that watching his cartoons in English is an excellent way to learn. (I suspect that's how he speaks Hindi so well....)
"don't understand anything"
Another grumbling, "She just sits and reads books all the time, even while eating she reads." He turns to me. "Is it a hobby?"
"Addiction,", I tell him. "Obsession."
whoever it is, be they aged 6 or 65, I would not like them referring to reading as a "hobby". Philately is a hobby. Butterfly collections, those are hobbies. I suddenly feel the word "hobby" is rather inadequate, denoting a rather mild interest in whatever it is you're doing, it doesn't convey passion, or depth....Reading, it's a habit, it's a way of life.....I've never known my life or that of my parents to be without books. Be it comics, tween-chick-lit fiction, or crappy novels, or finally, the more serious-ish books i'm finally buying, I've loved books. Loved is an understatement, So yeah, I basically don't understand, never have, how people can be averse to reading. I love the smell of a new book, or even an old book, really. Not content with just reading books, I'll collect books, trilogies, series, and suffer space shortage. Sigh. I have the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, and Samit Basu's gameworld trilogy. Both modern fantasy, must-reads. I collected the 7 books of the Chronicles of Narnia a few years ago, I've read them all at least 7 times over. I dunno, when I get that dream house, or duplex apartment that I hope for, I guess I'll have one room there, with bean bags, and a bay window, and wall-to-wall bookshelves on three sides, and that'll be a library, my legacy.....where I can just go escape.....oh, yeah, I can see it.....All the great literary works.....in one room. My lil slice of heaven at home.
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Grr @ facebook. Stupid activeX photo control NEVER uploads. ugh ugh ugh. WHYYYYYY......

9 comments:

Unknown said...

amen.....

Abishek Ravi said...

so TV watchin can never be a hobby?

Mihir Pathare said...

books are the best thing that happened to of too. ^_^ it's nice growing up reading, rather than watching TV. although i've had my share of TV addiction issues, i no longer feel the need to watch TV at all. Books are all one needs. Right?
I was so bad about it that my mom had locked away my books during my books 10 board exams...

>_<

Espèra said...

Oh yeaah. The Bartimaeus trilogy is awesome. I haven't read Samit Basu yet, but I hear it's good.

In chicklit, have you read Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic series? It's not "tweey" however.
i would also suggest you the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants.

lucky said...

agreed, reading is a necessity 4 me too, n not a hobby. but tell me, wat do u think abt sleeping? is that an obsession/addiction or hobby?? dont say its a necessity, coz here im referring to oversleeping.

Ish said...

Ah, you reminded me of my childhood. I was quite a TV watcher too, except that we had no Tata Sky or cartoon channels in Hindi then so I watched everything in English, whether I understood it or not.

VenkyMarg said...

Tv is like a cigerette. Once the shows over you find another show. the pack get over at a particular time. thats reading never got the habit unfortunately. but hobby is must better than having an addiction.
Hobbys vice addiction.

Mystique said...

2 jan: amen.

2 tat-tvam-asi: not for me, for me, I have a DVD player and a video library membership, so I watch monies only.....no, it's not a hobby per se...

2 taurius: I had a TV addiction once....but same here, i don't watch much TV anymore. prefer movies. Books keep me sane during exams.

2 espera: naah, haven't read shopaholic series....the only Kinsella i've read is "can you keep a secret?" and I liked it....
oh yeah i loved travelling pants. I loved the idea.

2 ludicrous: um....lesee....oversleeping is...a vice. a mistake. I do it too.

2 snitch: aaah, si... My TV watching was only when I came to India on vacation, I've watched all the classic cartoons in English, the way they were made, and I like them that way. Try watching Dexter's lab in Hindi.

2 venky: hmm....in more ways than one, TV is like fags....

Punvati said...

I hear you... never could i understand how someone could say they didnt "like" reading or that it was boring... never... i survive on books, love the smell of them, love finding old yellowed books with fragile pages which I never knew I had at home...
Somehow I was a tv addict too when i was a kid. I didnt have cable at home for the first few years of my life, thankfully, so i read. and read and read. But when I stayed at a relatives place, it was cartoon network morning till evening. TV is like fags.. good analogy.
Thank god i didnt have cable as a kid.