We all are indebted to our parents all our life. the reasons people may give is a different topic all together. I am particularly indebted to my father for passing the passion for books. not any books though. books that offer u an insight, that change your perspectives towards life, provide knowledge and most of all make u a better human being. Its a huge statement that i am making u may think. but for him, i wouldnt have been the person i am today. I still remember him narrating me and my brother classics from both marathi literature and english literature. Maybe it was that initiation into languages that fueled my interest into reading and i am grateful for that.
there was one particular book that he used to read when i was in 3-4 th standard and he used to tell us the what he had read in the night in bed. it was by no means a novel for kids (read Harry potter types) as it was an emotional story of an african teenage tribal who is kidnapped and sold as a slave in america. the story touched me so much even after so many years in school, college and a job i still remembered some parts of the story.
so last year as i thought of reading some book to revive my old passion, my father reminded me of that particular story. Suddenly, i became interested in reading the book myself. i began searching for time when i could read the book and to my dismay found out theres time if you wish to find it out of the most tight schedule. The next few days i got involved in the distractions of a job and eventually forgot about it altogether. That is when my dad showed me the book that i wanted to read from my childhood. i always was curious who was the slave boy? how was he kidnapped? what happened to him? did he return to his family. all these questions were right in front of me. it was just a matter of when i wanted to seek rather than hope to know the answers from someone else. I eyed the book which was comparable to some harry potter series with more than 700 pages to it. but the size of books fired me more to read them rather than be intimidated. Finally, my eyes rested on the title of the book. it read "The Roots" authored by "Alex Haley".
The fact that i finished reading the book in the next few days doesnt speak anything of the emotional journey i was taken through while reading it. Very few books i have read have given me a more fulfilling experience. The journey of a man in search of his roots - thats the only description i can think of this book. But at the end of it, its you who begin on a quest unknowingly to search for your own. Hence i believe the title is very apt mentioning just "the Roots" without being explicit about it.
The canvas of the book includes the tribal landscape of south africa; the culture, the customs, the people. in contrast the america during the age of slavery. the savagery of humans against humans. their disdain for people with a different colored skin. the helplessness of grief and the guts of an iron will that remained unconquered. Even though at the end you may think its part fiction nothing makes you believe that there couldn't have been a "Kunte Kinta" from the region of "Kambe Bolongo" whose fight for being a free human failed just because he had a fallible quality of being a mortal.....
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
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