The geniuses who told stories.

 My daughter brought home a few second hand novels from the Sunday market at the Hin Bus Depot where she herself was selling face masks produced by her company: Marimask. I just finished reading the first, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting published by Yearling. It was a refreshing fast read as it took one on a fantasy adventure that needed not much thinking. The book about a Naturalist, Dr. Dol;ittle, brought back my childhood memories of the children adventure stories that i had read, books like those by Enib Blyton, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling and the likes; I was an avid reader at a very early age and my English language subject had won me many awards at the end of the year on Parents' Day. Reading saw me through my teenage years while living on the East Coast in Kuala Terengganu where i was exposed to numerous novels of all kinds thanks to my oldest brother who was also my English teacher at the Sultan Sulaiman Secondary School. He had spent several years in England and upon his return home had brought back with him two large suitcases of novels which he had hidden under his bed as most of these were considered not suitable for an average teenager for their erotic nature. This however only had my curiosity fired up and I stole into thee suitcases and devoured as many of the literature as i could. Hence My English subject improved tremendously only it was not as well appreciated in school  when the English teacher was your older brother.

I was reading the likes of James Michener,s "Hawaii", "Alaska" "Chesapeak" and a few others, or Harold Robbin's, "The Carpet Baggers," and "Tycoon. " Alistair McClean's many great thrillers like,"Ice Station Zebra", "Guns of Navarone", "Where Eagles Dare," most of which were later turned into epic movies with roles played by great actors such as Gregory Peck in the Guns of Navarone and Clint Eastwood in "Where Eagles Dare." I devoured James Clavell's, "Taipan" and "Shogun" within a short time  many other great writers of the time. I had spent hours of my time sitting under the, Flame of the Forest tree in front of my brother's teacher's quarters residence pouring through one novel after another oblivious to the world around me. In between reading my eyes would venture upon the horizon of the South China Sea that was set before me where I was sitting. This was when my mind developed the yearn to set out and venture beyond the horizon to discover what it was like to feel the snow under your feet or the warmth of the desert sand, the streets and sky scrappers of large cities where I had visited in my imagination while reading the novels. There is no doubt in my mind that reading had a great influence on my life and had planted the bug that led me to become footloose and fancy free while travelling the globe in my adult life. 

Reading of books especially novels has become a rarity as today's young adults are more immersed into the attractions of the Internet and various other outlets for entertainment other than the archaic paper backs. They would rather carry an I-pad or mobile phones with endless source of games and videos than lug around a thick novel. Finding a person with nose buried in a book in cafes is a rare sight these days and books are becoming more expensive due to the rise in cost to have them published. However I still love the feel of an old paperback novel in my hand and cherish the smell of the musty worn out pages, nothing like a second hand paperback to keep the mystery of life alive. The fact that book may have been read several others before you or where it has been before ending up in your hands is in itself a mystery. It is sad to say that minor mysteries like these are of no values to the young minds of today, that sense of awe about the ability to conjure up tales and stories that would entertain one in the privacy of one's own imagination is slowly is becoming a thing of the past. 

I feel much fortunate and obligated to those great writers whose works I had the opportunity to read in my younger days as they had fed my imagination and set me up to be able to be who I am today. I still marvel at their abilities to narrate such epic works as by J.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling that today has captivated the minds of millions around the world young and adults alike. Names like Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum, Dan Brown and John Grisham has produced great movies from their novels and I feel most fortunate that in my lifetime I have been able to enjoy their works both as a reader as well as a movie buff. To witness the transformation of their literary works projected on to the silver screen is a marvel that still defies my imagination. If ther is anything to say spiritually I would say this is the result of a collective consciousness triggered by a great if not enlightened mind; these are geniuses of our times.