Of Wishlists and Happiness #AbHarWishHogiPoori

Don’t you just love that video? I did! I enjoyed the “wish chain” going around, spreading smiles on each recipient’s face. Makes me believe all the more in a “connected” world, a world connected by love.

You know my son has just started college. Since he also featured in the top 3 in his school, I wanted to present him with something significant, something that would be both useful and enjoyable.

Sury and I secretly planned and plotted and zero-ed in on a laptop. We were seeing advertisements of the MacBook Air. My friends, who use it, can’t seem to stop raving about it and I figured that it would be the right choice. I noticed that Pragati who blogs at KamalKitchen has recently bought one and had great things to say.

Now, instead of just going and ordering it, me being me, I thought I’d just tease my son a bit and asked him to make a wish list, as a gift to him. Here’s what he wrote:

Kathak The Tradition : Fusion and Diffusion (English) 01 Edition by Ranjana Srivastava
Kathak Ke Pracheen Nratang by Geeta Raghuveer
Kathak Main Kavitt by Geeta Raghuveer

Three books. There’s a fourth but that’s only available directly from the author.

You see, ever since he was little, he has been book-crazy. His personal library is quite formidable and growing so fast that I am actually contemplating making wall to ceiling shelves in his room. I have already displaced some of my own books into cartons to make space for him. Luckily, I’ve switched to digital books and don’t need physical storage, unless you could a 3″ x 5″ hard disk. I also use cloud storage for anywhere and anytime access.

What to do? I confessed to him that I was planning to get him the MacBook Air. He just smiled serenely as only he can, and said that he would rather have one later, when he was ready to write his own books. Right now, he preferred to get those books. What could I say?

I said #AbHarWishHogiPoori

Vidur’s love for the written word started at an early age. In fact, he could read by the age of 4 and was never happier than when cozying up with his Grandma with a bunch of books.

We are a family of book-crazy people and often joke about how it is the only wealth we’ve amassed. I remember how his favorite activity used to be walking around our area, checking out the various roadside used book stalls and spending hours there, browsing the variety. We’d return home with a bag full – every time!

Whenever there was an occasion to celebrate and we asked him what he wanted, he’d jump up and pull out his “wish book” and reel off names of books. I am glad we indulged him. I love the fact that his interests are varied – what began as a love for folk and fairy tales has now evolved into much more and spans culture, languages and linguistics, art, traditional stories (mythology and folktales), science…it is an endless list.

Look at him enjoy himself:

I often ask him – if he were granted one wish, what it would be, and he says, “settle down comfortably in his library” and he has been pretty constant with that, as evidenced by his growing collection.

By the way, look on his face when they were delivered? Priceless. Looks like he’s going to enjoy many happy hours with his gift.

I am smiling too. He is a chip off the old block, after all!