"...What about Chacha Choudhary...?"

"...What about Chacha Choudhary...?" 

...asked V, who has seen most of the Chacha Choudhary cartoons on Youtube last year.

I have been trying to get my 7 yo daughter, V, to develop the habit of reading for a while now, but in vain. A few days back, the school introduced them to the library and she developed an interest after reading some pages there. I figured she is now receptive to books, so I tried finding some online/whatsapp based libraries but nothing worked out. 

After some thought, I decided to check on something which I was fairly sure did not exist. But there was no harm in trying. About 30 years back, my mom (or was it the sisters, can't recall) had introduced me to a library near our home. It was situated in a community centre which offers a lot of facilities for the community. I decided to check if the library is still there. So after V came home from school yesterday evening, I took her along to check. To my delight, the library was very much there, pretty much in the same shape. I could see the shelves I saw 30 years back and I felt as if I was smelling the books I smelled back then. 

V & I rushed to the enrollment counter. "Sir, please join from August 1st" said the kind lady. I felt a bit sad, but she was quick to add "The fees are monthly and even if you enroll today, you have to pay the entire July fees. There are hardly 10 days left,'' she said, empathetically. "Oh, ok. But what are the fees?" I enquired. "Rs. 50 a month plus some deposits. In all, it will be Rs. 300+ a quarter" she said, earnestly. On hearing that, I started grinning like a maniac. 50 bucks a month! To access to such a treasure trove for my child! "I don't mind the fees, please enroll us from today" I said, all excited, as if someone had asked a kid if they wanted to have their favorite ice cream for dinner daily. 

We finished the enrollment and rushed back to the book shelves. "What do you want to take today?" I asked V. She wanted to read Chacha Choudhary but unfortunately those weren't available at the moment. "I read a bit of Famous Five and Secret Seven at the school library and liked it. But, some of my friends are reading Harry Potter, so do they have those here?" asked the little round face with the eyebrows pointing towards the sky. After a long hunt, we failed to find it. I asked the librarian and she promptly pointed us to where the book was. So with The Philosopher's Stone in tow, we left the library, discussing how books are more magical than the movies that are based on them...

The episode reminded me of a quote by Neil Gaiman - "Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."

When did you last (encourage your child to) read a book? Perhaps today might be a good day to start reading about how to slay that dragon you've been worried about!