I was in my teens when I picked up the habit of reading books, now after 3 decades, with around 300 books in paperback or hardcover plus 175 e-books in my kindle and 42 books in audible, I feel my quest to find the hidden treasures in the books is still unearthed. I have not read all of them to the core, but I am sure that have read atleast 75% of them with my full attention.

Why do I cherish having so many books? One reason is that in my childhood I was bullied a lot by my classmates and I never retaliated, my anger was always supressed by my sulking in bathroom below the shower, or under the pillow. I never yelled or screamed. One day my English teacher saw me crying in school washroom and she talked to me, she took me to her locker and gave me my first book “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson. This book changed my energies, I spent almost 3 days in library bunking classes and only reading. I felt i have someone to hold and it hit a nerve, since then till my school finished, each book I read I shared it with my teacher, on a regular basis, she gave wings to my imagination and helped me develop a habit by asking me “what are you reading today?” she was my first mentor.

My next quest was Sydney Sheldon – “Rage of Angels”, “Master of the Game”, “If Tomorrow Comes”, “Windmills of the Gods”, “The Sands time”, “Memories of Midnight”, “Nothing Lasts Forever”, “The Stars Shine Down”, “Morning, Noon and Night”. Sydney Sheldon’s novels were incredibly popular in India due to their thrilling plots, fast-paced action, and engaging storytelling. Most of these books were available in local bookstores, libraries, and as part of affordable paperback editions in the 1990s. This is how I evolved in the world of fiction, fantasies and concept that after every hard time there comes justice.

During my board exams I used to get fresh by reading fiction and this continued till my college, after that as i entered in my college and hunt for career development my habit took a back seat and depression took a front seat. It took me almost 10 years to come back to books, and then in 2008 I started reading again with “If God Was a Banker” by Ravi Subramanian. It made me fantasise that I would get in relationship with a banker. This book had 300 plus pages and I read this book non-stop like we do binge watching these days. These are one of the days I didn’t took shower, I didn’t go to office, I didn’t do anything and I just read for straight 20 hours till the last word of this book.

Next day I went to a book store near my house and picked The 3 Mistakes of My Life” by Chetan Bhagat, and The Immortals of Meluha” by Amish Tripathi. This was the first time I picked something very different to read Amish Tripathi opened my arena of reading towards history and questioning Hindu belief system. I owe some portion of my having a practical approach towards religion and wilderness towards spirituality to his writings. It was the time when we were in the first recession phase of my era, I was job less as i had closed down my first & last expedition as an entrepreneur.

After reading “The Palace of Illusions” & “Mistress of Spices” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, I felt I need to search more inside me and become unique, I felt my hardships of life are “just not there for being there”, but for me to do something about it and evolve. I felt that I might be physically present in a situation or environment but I am not actively participating, connecting, or contributing meaningfully to my own life.

I started my journey again with going to a book store and investing in” The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey, How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. These two books lead me get back to my confidence and I started working again. In the last few months of being without any job taught me that life can be lead alone, but it cant be lead without clarity, purpose and determination to learn.

Looking into my interest of reading my boyfriend at that time gifted me “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne on my 30th birthday. I owe my current belief system to this book at large as it connected me to laws of universe. I was through out a commerce student who ran away from science & maths. But this book made me question a lot of things and I started working on my skills. Unfortunately, our education system only offers basic education, it doesn’t work on skill development which is required at each step of life as we move in this highly competitive world. This book made me introspect on my whole existence as a nomenclature connecting to universe where I could clearly see the missing blocks in me.

Then came in my life an author who changed my perspective towards almost everything, Paulo Coelho. This was the first time I fell in love with the writer, I never knew that one person can write so vividly on almost every aspect of life and things around. My journey of reading his work started with “The Alchemist” in my words it is a classic. His other books “Brida”, “The Zahir” ,”The Archer”, “Adultery”, “The Secrets of the Warrior of the Light” ,”The Aleph” & “The Semi-autobiography of Paulo Coelho“. He is a Brazilian writer , who has written almost everything, novels, fiction, non-fiction, inspirational and spirituality.

So, when I started writing my first novella – Hormone Hijack, I can say that the above writers contribute a lot to my open thought process towards emotions, sexuality, pleasure etc making me who I am , standing in the gray area of indecisiveness with acceptance of the highs and lows of life and moving forward daily with the purpose of living each experience with gratitude that these emotions have to offer.