Since the time I was a boy small,
(Some of you will now snigger),
I was the one with the book and not the ball,
And just like everyone as I grew bigger,
Books were still not considered de rigueur.
I read Champak and I read Tinkle,
And anything that I could in front of me see,
However, text books were always just a sprinkle,
They somehow drove me up a tree,
Holy Mother of God!, why wouldn't they just let me be?
As I grew older, my books grew bolder,
(No, I don't mean what you think I mean),
Books became bigger and the stories grew colder.
The trend continued as I eventually passed my teens,
But boy, I could easily be called a reading machine.
I never romanticised books, their form didn't matter,
The beauty of the print or the color of the cover,
These were to books what egg is to batter;
They just hold them so they don't fall all over,
It was the words and their play that made me a lover.
They have made me laugh they have made me smile,
Even made me cry and in love made me fall,
Making every sleepless night completely worthwhile,
I know it is me and not them at the other's beck and call,
Though sports could have possibly made me tall.
I now read them on my beloved Kindle named Jude,
There is no fragrance of inky books or colorful prints,
Though I now carry in my pocket, books in multitude.
I still dream and they still color my glasses in various tints,
And without dog-ears through my books I sprint.
I still want to own a library where books for free kids rent,
They come and read every book ever written,
It is just a fantasy, which periodically I vent.
I can keep writing on how with books I am smitten,
But I'll now let you be, and assume you too are bitten.